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7 




SIR WALTER RALEGH. 



VIRGINIA 



1492—1892 



A Brief Rcviezu of the Discovery of the Continent of 

North America, 

zvith 

A HISTORY OF THE EXECUTIVES 

of the Colony and of the Comviomvealth of 
Virginia. 



N TWO PARTS 



BY ^ 

MARGARET VOWELL SMITH 




WASHINGTON: 

W. H. LOWDERMILK & CO. 

189^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S93, 

By MARGARET V. SMITH, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 






Glens Falls (N. Y.) Printing Co. 



TO 

THE SACRED MEMORY 

OF 

MY FATHER, 

ITvancia Xee Smitb, 

whose; love for his native; state;, 

THROUGH E;ARLY SEFD-SOWING IN THR MIND OF 

THIS HIS CHILD, NOW 

FINDS IMPERFECT EXPRESSION 

HERE; 

AND TO 

THE BELOVED MEMORY 

OF 

MY BROTHER, 

Courtlanb Ibawl^tns Smitb, 

THE TYPE OF VIRGINIA CHIVALRY, 
THE EMBODIMENT OF A NOBLE, GIFTED, VIGOROUS 

MANHOOD, WHO, ORIGINATING THE 

IDEA OF THIS HISTORY, BEGAN ITS PREPARATION, 

WHEN AN UNTIMELY DEATH PREVENTED 

ITS COMPLETION, 

IS 

DEDICATED. 



Alexandria , Virgin ia . 
i8g2. 



M. V. S. 



Among the chief books of reference used in the arrange- 
ment of the following historical sketches, may be cited : 

HOLMS'S Annals of America. 

Smith's History of Virginia. 

Hening's Statutes at Large. 

Bancroft's History of the United States. 

Brock's Virginia and Virginiajis. 

Jkfferson's Notes on. Virginia. 

Meade's Old Chnrches and Families of Virginia. 

Ripley & Dana's American Cyclopcedia. 

I^ORd's Lempricre'' s Universal Biography . 

Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry. 

Other histories and biographies have also contributed to 
the information incorporated in this work. 



PREFACE. 



To THOSE who would inquire wherefore VIRGINIA is 
called " The Mother of States," we would hold up to view the 
geographical outline upon the opposite page ; and to those 
who seek to learn why she is known as ' ' The Mother of 
Statesmen," we would point to that "shining host" whose 
names adorn this volume; yet, who, not hers alone, have 
blended their deeds inseparably with the triumphs and prog- 
ress of this Great Republic. 

Love of country has been the animating cause of the 
making of this book, and the author indulges the hope 
that such an effort to present the lives of the Virginia 
Governors in a compacft form, may lead to other compila- 
tions, so that each State and Territory of an unbroken 
Union may lay its written tribute into the treasury of our 
garnered history. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART 



PAGE 

Introduction i 

Sir Walter Ralegh's Patent from Queen Elizabeth . 8 

I. 

Sir Wai^ter Ralegh 15 

" " described by Bancroft . . . . 17 

II. 
Ralph Lane 19 

III. 
John White 21 

IV. 
Sir Thomas Smith 23 

Articles, Instrucflions, and Orders for the good Order 
and Government of the two several Colonies and 
Plantations, by King James I. ....... 24 

V. 

Edward Maria Wingfield 28 

VI. 
John Ratcliffe 30 

vii. 



viii. CONTENTS 






VII. 
Captain John Smith . . . . 




PAGE 
31 


" " " described by 


Abiel Holmes . 


39 




Thomas Jefferson 


39 




Bancroft . 


40 




John H. Wheeler 


40 




William Meade . 


41 




W. W. Henry . 


42 




William Wirt . 


42 



VIII. 
Captain Georgk Percy 44 

IX. 
Sir Thomas Gates 46 

X. 

IvORD De IvA Warr 47 

XI. 
Captain George Percy 50 

XII. 
Sir Thomas Dale 51 

XIII. 
Sir Thomas Gates 53 

XIV. 
Sir Thomas Daee 54 



XV. 
Captain George Yeardley 55 

XVI. 
Captain Samuee Argael 56 



CONTENTS. ix. 

XVII. 

PAGE 

Captain Nathaniei. Powell 59 

XVIII. 

Sir George Yeardley 60 

' ' A Reporte of the manner of proceeding in the Gen- 
eral assembly convented at James citty in Vir- 
ginia," July 30, 1619 61 

XIX. 

Sir Francis Wyatt 86 

XX. 

Sir George Yeardley 88 

XXI. 

Captain Francis West 89 

XXII. 
Doctor John Pott 90 

XXIII. 
Sir John Harvey 9-1 

XXIV.- 
Captain John West 92 

XXV. 
Sir John Harvey 93 

XXVI. 
Sir Francis Wyatt 94 

XXVII. 
Sir William Berkeley 95 



X. CONTENTS. 

XXVIII. 

PAGE 

Richard Kempe 96 

" " described by Bishop Wm. Meade . . 96 

XXIX. 

Sir William Berkeley 98 



XXX. 

Richard Bennet 100 

"Articles at the surrender of the Countrie" . . . 100 

Articles, etc., agreed upon 102 

' ' An Acft of Indemquitie made att the surrender of 
the Countrey" 103 

XXXI. 

Edward Digges 105 

XXXII. 

Captain Samuel Matthews 106 

Proceedings of Captain Matthews and Council in a 
contest with the Assembly, John Smith, Speaker . 107 

XXXIII. 

Sir William Berkeley 113 

Protest against Navigation Adt 114 

XXXIV. 

Colonel Francis Moryson 115 

Adl I. of Revised I^aws, concerning the building of 
Churches 115 

XXXV. 

Sir William Berkeley 117 

XXXVI. 

Sir Herbert Jeffries 120 



CONTENTS. xi. 

XXXVII. 

PA<5E 

Sir Henry Chichei.Ey 121 

XXXVIII. 

Thomas, lyORD Cuepeper 123 

Lord Culpeper's hostility to the introduction of print- 
ing into the Colony 125 

XXXIX. 

NiCHOEAs Spencer 126 

XL. 
Frances, Lord Howard 127 

XLI. 

Nathaniee Bacon 128 

XLII. 
Sir Francis Nichoeson 130 

XLIII. 
Sir Edmund Andros 132 

XLIV. 
George Hamilton Dougeas (Earl of Orkney) . .135 

XLV. 
Sir Francis Nichoeson 136 

XLVI. 
Edward Nott 137 

XLVII. 
Edmund Jenings 139 

XLVIII. 
Robert Hunter 140 



CONTENTS. 

XIvIX. 



PAGE 



Alexander Spotswood 141 

Journal of Mr. Fontaine 144 

I.. 

Hugh Drysdai^e 151 

LI. 

Robert Carter 152 

Governor Carter's Epitaph 152 

LII. 
William Gooch 154 

LIII. 

William Anne Keppel 155 

IvIV. 

Commissary James Blair 156 

Epitaph. 157 

LV. 
Sir William Gooch 159 

LVI. 

John Robinson 160 

EVII. 

Thomas Eee 162 

Epitaph of Richard Eee 163 

" " Thomas Lee 164 

LVIII. 

Lewis Burwell 166 

Epitaph 166 



CONTENTS. xiii. 

LIX. 

PAGE 

Robert Dinwiddie i68 

Bancroft's tribute to Washington . 169 



LX. 

John Campbeli, (Earl of IvOudon) 172 

I.XI. 
John Blair 173 

LXII. 

Francis Fauquier 175 

Address and Resolutions of patriots of the Northern 
Neck of Virginia, after passage of Stamp Adt, 
drawn up by Richard Henry lyce 177 

LXIII. 

Sir Jeffrey Amherst 181 

Extra (ft from speech of William Pitt (Lord Chat- 
ham) 183 

Macaulay's description of Pitt 184 

EXIV. 
John Blair 185 

EXV. 
Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt . . .187 
Bancroft's description of Botetourt 187 

EXVI. 

William Nelson 190 

Eulogy on Nelson, by Mr. Camm 191 

Epitaph , 192 



xiv. CONTENTS. 

I.XVII. 

PAGE 

John Murray 193 

Extradt from Bancroft, on the Assembly of March 4, 

1773 194 

Kxtradt from Thomas Jefferson, concerning lyOgan, 
the Cayuga Chief 196 

LXVIII. 

Pkyton RAND01.PH 199 

Kxtradl from Patrick Henry's speech in Convention, 
held at Richmond, Virginia, March 20, 1775 . . 205 

LXIX. 

Edmund PendlKTon 209 

Described by William Wirt 210 

Bancroft's description of Convention, held at Rich- 
mond, Virginia, May, 1776 211 

Declaration of Rights 216 

EXX. 

Patrick Henry 220 

Described by William Wirt . . ■ 221 

The Constitution of Virginia, adopted June 29, 1776 . 226 

Extradl from Williamsburg Gazette, of May 17, 1776 232 

Extradl from Thomas Jefferson 236 

Extradl from William Wirt, concerning the Convention 

in Richmond, Virginia, which met June 2, 1788 . 237 
William Wirt's description of Patrick Henry's adieu 

to his profession 239 

EXXI. 

Thomas Jefferson 240 

Extradl from Autobiography 240 

243 



CONTENTS. XV. 

PAGE 

Resolution of thanks by General Assembly to Thomas 
Jefferson 245 

Resolutions for a cession of the lands on the north- 
west side of Ohio to the United States .... 246 

Resolution indemnifying William Fleming .... 248 

Extradt from Washington's letter to Governor Brooke 254 

IvXII. 

Thomas Nelson, Jr 256 

Extradl from General Henry I^ee, concerning the 
heroism of Captain Matthew Smith 259 

Adl of Assembly to indemnify Thomas Nelson and to 
legalize certain ad:s of his administration . . . 260 



PART 



Introduction 265 

" lyist of the lyivinge in Virginia," 1623 267 

lyist of counties in Virginia, 1892 268 

I.XXIII. 

Benjamin Harrison 270 

Proclamation concerning the ratification of articles of 

peace, 1783 271 

An Adl concerning regulations respedling the British 

trade 272 

LXXIV. 

Patrick Henry 273 

Described by William Wirt 273 



xvi. CONTENTS. 

PAGK 

Close of Patrick Henry's life, described by W. W. 

Henry 277 

Preamble to Adl for the revision of the laws, Odlober, 

1776 • ' 277 

IvXXV. 

Edmund Randoi^ph 279 

Bishop William Meade describes the views of Ed- 
mund Randolph on religious subjects .... 283 

EXXVI. 

Beverley Randolph 284 

An Adl for the cession of ten miles square to the 
United States . 285 

I^XXVII. 

Henry Lee '^87 

Corps of Cavalry, described by his distinguished biog- 
rapher 287 

" Spread Eagle Tavern " incident 288 

" Paulus's Hook " movement 289 

Address from the citizens of Alexandria, Virginia, to 

George Washington 291 

Author of "Memoirs of the War in the Southern 
Department of the United States," revised by his 
son, General Robert E. Lee ........ 293 

EXXVIII. 

Robert Brooke 295 

Extract from Washington's address to Congress, 1795 . 295 

IvXXIX. 

James Wood 298 

Extract from Washington's address to Congress, 
December, 1796 298 



CONTENTS. xvii. 

LXXX. 

PAGE 

James Monroe 300 

Inscription upon tomb of Daniel Morgan .... 303 
Extract from ' ' Monroe Doctrine " 305 

I,XXXI. 
John Page 306 

IvXXXII. 

William H. Cabell 310 

Extract from Eesolutions of Respect, by Court of 
Appeals 311 

LXXXIII. 
John Tyler 313 

EXXXIV. 

t VIES Monroe 315 

Extract from Report of Committee on Foreign Rela- 
tions 315 

EXXXV. 
George William Smith 318 

EXXXVI. 
Peyton Randolph 320 

EXXXVII. 

James Barbour 321 

William Wirt's description of James Waddell, the 
blind preacher 321 

EXXXVIII. 
Wilson Gary Nicholas 326 

EXXXIX. 
James P. Preston 328 



xviii. CONTENTS. 

XC. 

PAGE 

Thomas Mann Randolph 330 

Decision of Supreme Court of United States, concern- 
ing Dartmouth College 331 

Extradt from speech of Daniel Webster 331 

Extradt from Inaugural address of President James 

Monroe 332 

An A(5t ceding to the United States the lands on Old 
Point Comfort, etc 332 

XCI. 
James Pleasants, Jr. . . 334 

XCII. 
John Tyler 336 

XCIII. 
William B. Giles 338 

XCIV. 
John Floyd 340 

XCV. 
lyiTTLETON Waller Tazewell 342 

XCVI. 
Wyndham Robertson . . . . 344 

XCVII. 
David Campbell 34^ 

XCVIII. 
Thomas Walker Gilmer 349 

XCIX. 
John Mercer Patton 352 



CONTENTS. xix. 

C. 

PAGE 

John Rutherfoord 354 

CI. 
John M. Gregory 356 

CII. 
James McDowei.Iv 358 

cm. 

William Smith 360 

Adl declaring the County of Alexandria, formerly in 
the District of Columbia, to be an integral portion 
of the Commonwealth of Virginia 361 

CIV. 

John Buchanan Floyd 363 

Description of Washington Monument in Richmond, 
Virginia 363 

CV. 
Joseph Johnson 365 

CVI. 
Henry Alexander Wise 367 

CVII. ' 

John L,etcher 369 

Resolutions by Hon. John J. Allen, offered in a mass- 
meeting of the people of Botetourt County, Vir- 
ginia 370 

An ordinance to repeal the ratification of the Consti- 
tution of the United States of America, by the 
State of Virginia 375 



XX. CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



A Declaration of the people of Virginia represented 
in Convention, at the Cit}' of Wheeling, June 13, 
1861 376 

Tribute of respedt to Governor L,etcher by General 
Assembly 378 

CVIII. 
W1LI.1AM Smith 379 

CIX. 

Francis H. Pierpoint 381 

Resolutions by the General Assembly requesting the 
President of the United States to grant a general 

Amnesty to the citizens of Virginia 383 

Resolutions by the General Assembly of Virginia, 
approving the policy of the President of the United 
States, etc 383 

ex. 

Hknry H. Wells 385 

CXI. 
Gilbert C. Walker 387 

An A(ft to ratify the Joint Resolution of Congress, 
passed June 16, 1866, proposing an Amendment to 
the Constitution of the United States of America 388 

An Acft to ratify the Joint Resolution of Congress, 
passed February 27, 1869, proposing an Amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States . . 389 

CXII. 

James Lawson Kemper 391 

Resolutions by General Assembly of Virginia, pro- 
testing against the passage of the Civil Rights Bill 392 



CONTENTS. xxi. 

CXIII. 

PAGE 

Frederick W. M. Holliday 394 

Published addresses 395 

CXIV. 

William Ewan Cameron 397 

Adl abolishing the " whipping-post " 398 

cxv. 

FiTzHUGH Lee 399 

Extradl of letter from General R. E. lyce .... 400 
Resolution of General Assembly extending thanks to 
the Attorney-General, etc 402 

CXVI. 

Philip W. McKinney - 403 

Adl to provide for the settlement of the public debt of 

Virginia 405 

Extracts from Report of Commissioner of Agriculture 
for Virginia 413 



APPENDIX. 



Note a — Christopher Columbus 441 

Note B — Venice 442 

Note C — General Robert E. I^ee 443 

General Thomas J. Jackson 443 

Note D — Causes which rendered necessary the New 
Edition of the Code of Virginia, 1873 443 



PART I. 

History of the Executives of Virginia from the Patent granted 

by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Ralegh, 1584, to 

the close of the Revolutionary War, lySi. 



INTRODUCTION. 



That the great Western Continent of our earth bears wit- 
ness to a venerable past, is a world-accepted fact, and that its 
gradual advance in culture has been in obedience to a fixed law 
of humanity, is also a matter beyond dispute. A different dis- 
tribution of land and water on the globe is a possible factor in 
the problem of the early spread of the human race, but as yet 
science has not been able to solve this question, and with all the 
lights of modern civilization, no sifting of the mutilated rec- 
ords of the past has brought the long-sought knowledge. 
No firm foundation has been found on which to fix the first 
link in a chain of reasoning ; no corner stone on which to 
build a theory of the primeval dawn. In the language of a 
distinguished scientist, 

"Multitudes of races and nations have arisen upon the 
American Continent and have disappeared, leaving no trace 
but ruins, mounds, a few wrought stones or fragments of pot- 
tery. History can only preserve facts founded on written 
records, or bona fide traditions, and it is from these formula- 
tions that it builds up chronology and traces the pedigree of 
nations. Here all these fail. Those whom we are disposed 
to call aborigines are perhaps but the conquerors of other 
races that preceded them ; conquerors and conquered are for- 
gotten in a common oblivion and the names of both have 
passed from the memory of man." 

It is generally agreed that Asia was the cradle of the 
human race, and that by successive migrations during an 
incalculable period man spread to the uttermost parts of the 
globe. The stories of Memphis, Thebes, Babylon, Assyria, 
Lydia, Media, and Persia, open our minds to the progress of 
mankind in early days, and from the history of Egypt alone we 
can form some idea of that ancient world which in process of 
I 1 



3 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

time was to people the whole earth. In recent wonderful 
discoveries at Tel Kl-Amarna, in Upper Egypt, of epistolary- 
correspondence between Egyptian kings of the iStli dynasty 
(or i5tli century B. C.) and potentates of Western Asia, we 
are confronted with the surprising truth that this was a 
period of great literary activity, and that there was a "world 
of letters" before the Hebrew conquest of Palestine, is now a 
widely spread opinion. Dwelling upon the constantly unfold- 
ing revelations of the hoary past, we may well conceive how 
advanced were the nations of the ancient world, and how pop- 
ulous must have been the continent which drove its surplus 
human hordes upon the far shores of America. That these 
waves of living men, belonging to the outer edges of Asiatic 
nomadic barbarism, came to North America by Behring 
Strait, and spread along the line of the 30th parallel, south, 
to South America, is a plausible hypothesis, but of their 
growth afterwards nothing definite can be known. It is only 
supposed that they passed through the necessary processes of 
evolution until, after centuries of waiting, they reached a 
higher and higher plane of culture, gradually crystalizing 
their ideas in so permanent a form that pre-historic remains 
are scattered broadcast over the three Americas. To the 
North, these vestiges of life exist from the Rocky Mountains 
on the West to the Alleghanies on the East ; from the Great 
Eakes on the North to the Gulf of Mexico on the South ; and 
the monuments of Mexico, Peru, and Central America pro- 
claim a yet more advanced degree of culture. These last 
" must have required skilled labor, a numerous population, 
and an established priesthood, such as could have developed 
only during the lapse of centuries." 

But not the works of man alone tell of the teeming life 
which in the remote past covered this continent with sentient 
beings. Traces of mj-riads of human skeletons speak their 
own story of a brief sojourn upon earth, but leave no certain 
clue to solve the mystery of their being. Which way they 
came, which way they went, what form they wore, is lost for- 
ever to the grasp of human lore. Yet in the great brother- 
hood of humanity, it touches a chord of sympathy to know 



INTRODUCTION, 3 

that these early peoples had their homes among the mountains 
and valleys which we call our own ; that they basked in the 
same sun and slept beneath the same stars we love to gaze 
on, and that the}^ buried their bones in the same Mother Earth 
that will receive our ashes ! Further than this we cannot go ; 
Night wrapt their cradle round with darkness, and having run 
their course they fell into eternal silence. 

Thus, no effort of archaeologist or biologist has ever 
traced a history of these forgotten races, and hidden in the 
shell-heap, the mound, and the pueblo, or buried beneath the 
monuments of Mexico and the farther South, lie peoples that 
have perished from the annals of the world, leaving in the 
great march of life only a nameless grave to mark their 
by-gone and mysterious existence. 

This shadowy outline of what may scarce be called a 
history, is that which can be told of the earliest state of 
America ; but the time was drawing near for a long-delayed 
and higher life to which the Creator of the universe had 
destined it. 

For several centuries before the Christian era, philosophers 
had taught that the earth was round, and that the water 
which bounded Europe on the West washed also the shores 
of Asia on the East. This opinion gained ground as the 
years rolled on, and it was said of him who was ordained to 
be the great, successful Navigator, that he "comforted him- 
selfe with this hope, that the land had a beginning where the 
sea had an ending." To find a shorter route to India and 
to win a portion of the trade as yet carried on by caravans 
with the farther East, had long been the dream of the 
Portuguese, the Spanish, and the English. But to students 
and wise men the great field of discovery offered a nobler 
aim — the certain knowledge of the formation of the globe 
and the consequent advancement of mankind. 

And so it came to pass in the 15th century, that Christopher 
Columbus, the geographer and philosopher, the hardy mari- 
ner and dauntless apostle of an untried creed, tempted the 
"Sea of Darkness" and sailed toward the horizon's rim. 
By faith and patience he fulfilled the prophecy of ages. 



4 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

When he had traversed a waste of waters and robbed Old 
Ocean of his hidden treasure, in the transport of his joy he 
knelt and kissed the ground; at this, a reflex of "The 
Sleeping Beauty" of romance, the land awoke, and 

' ' In that new -world which is the old, ' ' 

rose to renewed vitality. 

Although it is asserted that the Western Continent had 
been seen as early as the loth century by roving Norsemen, 
still its real discovery was made by* Christopher Columbus 
in 1492. Imperishable be his name ! lyike that unchanging 
star which led him on his stormy way, the splendor of his 
triumph will know no going down. In undiminished bright- 
ness will it shine as ages pass away. 

In his career on earth Columbus had been called to taste 
the bitter and the sweet, had known the rapture of success and 
the sharp sting of base ingratitude, and, saddest to tell, had 
died in want and woe. But Time has garnered up his glory. 
No other navigator can claim to have discovered ' ' The New 
World " ; it was he alone who opened the gates of the morn- 
ing and flooded the trackless deep with everlasting light. 

When Columbus had rent the veil which hid this great 
reserve of Nature, he beheld upon its shores a savage race, 
a race perhaps washed on the American Continent by a later 
wave of migration, from that great nursery of the world, old 
Asia. Columbus called these people "Indians," believing 
that the islands he had struck were but the outer 
fringes of the India which he sought. Though this illusion 
has been long dispelled, the names he gave remain. "In- 
dians ' ' and ' ' West Indies ' ' abide as way-marks in the prog- 
ress of mankind. 

And now, no sooner had the existence of a trans- Atlantic 
continent become assured, than Western Europe rose to 
seize the prize. Spain, having sent Columbus on his cour- 
ageous voyage, prepared to take advantage of his finding, and 
soon acquired much territory in the South. France spread 
her canvas too for conquest, and planted her banner in the 

*Note A, Appendix. 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

frozen North. But between these two dominions lay a vast 
and unclaimed territory. Thither sent England her daring 
Cabot and his sons, who landed on the New World, planted 
the royal standard upon her virgin coasts, and laid an empire 
at Britannia's feet — an empire stretching from the ice-clad 
regions of the snow-king to the beauty, and fragrance, and 
opulence of the land of the sun ; whose Western and whose 
Eastern coast lines are washed each by a majestic ocean, and 
whose hidden and incalculable wealth made it at once the El 
Dorado of hope and of fruition. 

The patent conferred on John Cabot by Henry VII. is 
the "most ancient American state paper of England." The 
style of the commission is : 

"Johanni Cabotto, Civi Venetiarum, ac Ludovico, Sebas- 
tiano, et Sancto, Filiis dicti Johannis, etc." It is dated 
March 5th, in the eleventh year of the reign of Henry VII. 

Although John Cabot came from Venice, the place of his 
birth is unknown, and on his second voyage to America all 
trace of him is lost. But his name will adorn the annals of 
England so long as the Dominion of Canada exists, and the 
grand Banks of Newfoundland pour their pounds and shil- 
lings into British coffers. These banks are one of the treas- 
uries of the ocean, and the most valuable fishing grounds in 
the world. 

It was in this wise that John Cabot took possession of the 
country. He came in his first voyage upon the Western 
Continent, June 24, 1497, about latitude fifty-six degrees, 
among the dismal cliffs of Labrador. He ran along the 
coast for many leagues, and finally decided to land at a point 
which he called Prima Vista. This is generally acceded to 
be the island of Newfoundland. Here he erected a large 
cross with the flag of England on it ; and from affection for 
the *Republic of Venice he added also the banner of St. 
Mark. 

But seventy-nine years were suffered to pass away before 
England, from causes adverse to the extension of industry, 
trade, and navigation, again turned to her possessions in the 

*Note B, Appendix. 



6 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

New World. In 1576, Elizabeth, Queen of England, sent 
out Martin Frobisher for the discovery of a northwest pass- 
age ; failing in his effort, he returned to England, from 
whence he was sent again in 1577 to explore further the 
coast of Labrador and Greenland. Finding his search an 
unavailing task, he sailed for home, and in 1578 returned to 
America with the design of forming a settlement in the north- 
ernmost part of the continent. In this plan he was also 
thwarted, and the supposed gold, which had been found in 
such abundance in glittering stones and sand, proved as 
delusive as the hope of establishing a home in that inhospita- 
ble land. Still Elizabeth, dazzled b}- dreams of finding the 
precious ore in the ice-clad regions of the North and a mine 
of wealth in the fisheries of Newfoundland, readily granted 
a patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, one of her adventurous 
subjedls, authorizing him to discover and take possession of 
all remote and barbarous lands, unoccupied by any Christian 
prince or people. She vested in him, his heirs and assigns 
forever, the full right of property in the soil of those countries 
of which he should take possession, to hold of the crown of 
England by homage, on payment of the fifth part of the gold 
or silver ore found there ; conferred complete jurisdicftion 
within the said lands and seas adjoining them ; declared that 
all who should settle there should enjoy all the privileges of 
free citizens and natives of England, any law, custom, or 
usage to the contrary notwithstanding, and prohibited all 
persons from attempting to settle within 200 leagues of any 
place which Sir Humphrey Gilbert or his associates should 
have occupied during the space of six years. 

Gilbert soon after prepared to put to sea with a considera- 
ble fleet ; but dissensions arose and he was deserted by some 
of his associates. He set sail, however, yet losing one of his 
ships in a storm he returned to England, and the effort 
proved abortive. On this adventure he was accompanied by 
his half-brother. Sir Walter Ralegh. In 1583 Gilbert 
equipped a new squadron and embarked under happier aus- 
pices. He sailed for Newfoundland June 11, and in August, 
entering St. John's harbor, he summoned the Spaniards and 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

Portuguese to witness the ceremonies by which he was to 
take possession of the country for his sovereign. When 
assembled, his commission was read and interpreted to the 
foreigners. A turf and twig were then delivered to him, and 
proclamation was immediately made that by virtue of his 
commission from the Queen, he took possession of the har- 
bor of St. John and 200 leagues ever>' way around it, for the 
crown of England. Not far from this place a pillar was 
eredted, upon which were "infixed the amies of England." 
This formal possession, in consequence of the voyage of the 
Cabots, is considered by the English as the foundation of the 
right and title of the crown of England to the territory of 
Newfoundland and to the fishery upon its banks. 

But Gilbert was not destined to enjoy the reward of his 
enterprise and courage. On his return voyage the little 
Squij'vel which he commanded — a bark of ten tons only — 
foundered at midnight in a fierce gale at sea, and ship nor 
crew were ever seen again. The Hind one of the fleet, 
reached home in safety, and her captain, Edward Haies, 
detailed the sad disaster. 

But Sir Walter Ralegh, undaunted by the tragic fate of 
Gilbert, resolved to make the desperate venture once again. 
Observing that the Spaniards had not yet occupied a vast 
extent of territory north of the Gulf of Mexico, he hoped by 
planting a colony there to thwart the Spanish and the French 
from gaining entire possession of the continent. Ever since 
the arrival in England, in 1565, of the Huguenots who had 
escaped massacre in Florida by the Spaniards, the knowl- 
edge of the increasing power of Rome in America had been 
growing. This may have been one reason which lured the 
Protestant Elizabeth to seek a permanent settlement there ; 
but it is certain that the reputed mines of gold in the new 
country had much to do with energizing the project. So Sir 
Walter Ralegh, young, accomplished, and in favor with the 
Queen, had little difficulty in obtaining her consent to fit out 
another expedition. She gave to Ralegh a patent with pre- 
rogatives and jurisdictions as ample as had been granted to 
his brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert. 



8 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

The following is an exact copy of this interesting paper : 

THE LETTERS PATENTS, granted by the Queenes Maiestie to M. 
Walter Ralegh noiv Knight, for the discouering and planting of 
new lands and Countries, to continue the space of 6 yeeres and no 
■more. 

Elizabeth, by the grace of God of England, France, and Ireland, 
Queene, defender of the faith, &c. To all people to whom these presents 
shal come, greeting. Know ye that of our special grace, certaine science, 
& meere motion, we have giuen and graunted, and by these presents for 
vs, our heires and successors doe giue and graunt to our trusty and well- 
beloued seruant, Walter Ralegh, Esquire, and to his heires and assignes 
for euer, free liberty & licence from time to time, and at all times for euer 
hereafter, to discouer, search, finde out, and view such remote, heathen, 
and barbarous lands, countreis, and territories, not actually possessed of 
any Christian prince, nor inhabited by Christian people, as to him, his 
heires and assignes, and to euery or any of them shall seenie good, and 
the same to haue, holde, occupy & enioy to him, his heires and assignes 
for euer, with all prerogatives, commodities, iurisdictios, royalties, priui- 
ledgcs, franchises and preeminences, thereto or thereabouts both by sea 
and land, whatsoeuer we by our letters patents may grant, and as we or any 
of our noble progenitors haue heretofore granted to any person or persons, 
bodies politique or corporate ; and the saide Walter Ralegh, his heires and 
assignes, and all such as from time to time, by licence of vs, our heires 
and successors, shal goe or trauaile thither to inhabite or remaine, there 
to build and fortifie, at the discretion of the said Walter Ralegh, his 
heires & assignes, the statutes or act of Parliament made against fugitiues, 
or against such as shall depart, remaine, or continue out of our Realm of 
England without licence, or any other statute, act, law, or any ordinance 
whatsoeuer to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. 

And we do likewise by these presents, of our especial grace, meere 
motion, and certain knowledge, for vs, our heires and successors, giue 
and graunt full authoritie, libertie, and power to the said Walter Ralegh, 
his heires and assignes, and euery of them, that he and they, and euery 
or any of them, shall and may at all and euery time and times hereafter, 
haue, take, and leade in the sayde voyage, and trauaile thitherward, or to 
inhabite there with him or them, and euery or any of them, such, and so 
many of our subiefls as shall willingly accompany him or them, and 
euery or any of them ; and to whom also we doe by these presents, giue 
full libertie and authoritie in that behalfe, and also to haue, take, and 
employ, and vse sufficient shipping and furniture for the transportations, 
and Nauigations in that behalfe, so that none of the same persons or anj'^ 
of them be such as hereafter shall be restrained by vs, our heires or suc- 
cessors. 

And further that the said Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes, and 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

every of them, shall haue, holde, occupie and enioy to him, his heires 
and assignes, and euery of them for euer, all the soyle of all such landes, 
territories, and Countreis, so to be discovered and possessed as aforesayd, 
and of all such Cities, Castles, Townes, Villages and places in the same, 
with the right, royalties, franchises, and iurisdidlions, as well marine as 
other within the sayd landes, or Countreis, or the seas thereunto adjoin- 
ing, to be had, or vsed, with full power to dispose thereof, and of euery 
part in fee simple or otherwise, according to the order of the lawes of 
England, as neere as the same conueniently may be, at his, and their wil 
and pleasure, to any persons then being, or that shall reniaine within the 
allegiance of vs, our heires and successors ; reseruing always to vs, our 
heires and successors, for all seruices, dueties, and demaunds, the fift 
part of all the oare of golde and silver, that from time to time, and at all 
times after such discouerie, subduing and possessing, shall be there gotten 
and obteined : All which lands, Countreis, and territories shall for euer 
be holden of the said Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes, of vs, our 
heires and successors, by homage, and by the sayd payment of the said 
fift part, reserued onely for all seruices. 

And moreover, we do by these presents, for vs, our heirs and succes- 
sors, giue and grant licence to the said Walter Ralegh, his heires, and 
assignes, and euery of them, that he, and they, and euery or any of them, 
shall and may from time to time, and at all times for euer hereafter, for 
his and their defence, encounter and expulse, repell and resist as well by 
sea as by lande, and by all other wayes whatsoever, all and euery such 
person and persons whatsoever, as without the especial liking and licence 
of the sayd Walter Ralegh, and of his heirs and assignes, shall attempt to 
inhabite within the sayde Countreys, or any of them, or within the space 
of two hundreth leagues neere to the place or places within such Coun- 
treys as aforesayde (if they shall not bee before planted or inhabited 
within the limits as aforesayd with the subiedts of any Christian Prince 
being in amitie with vs) where the said Walter Ralegh, his heirs, or 
assignes, or any of them, or his, or their, or any of their associats or com- 
pany, shall within sixe yeeres (next ensuing) make their dwellings or 
abidings, or that shall enterprise or attempt at any time hereafter vnlaw- 
fully to annoy, eyther by Sea or Lande the sayde Walter Ralegh, his 
heires or assignes, or any of them, or his, or their, or any of his or their 
companies, giuing and graunting by these presents further power and 
authoritie to the sayd Walter Ralegh, his heirs and assignes, and euery of 
them from time to time, and at all times for euer hereafter, to take and 
surprise by all maner of meanes whatsoeuer, all and euery those person or 
persons, with their Shippes, Veasels, and other goods and furniture, 
which without the licence of the sayde Walter Ralegh, or his heires, or 
assignes, as aforesayd, shalbe found trafiquing into any Harbour, or Har- 
bours, Creeke, or Creekes, within the limits aforesayd (the subiec^ts of our 
Realms and Dominions, and all other persons in amitie with us, trading 



10 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

to the Newfound lands for fishing as heretofore they have commonly vsed, 
or being driuen by force of a tempest, or shipwracke onely excepted) ; 
and those persons, and eiiery of them, with their shippes, vessels, goods, 
and furniture, to deteiue and possesse as of good and lawfull prize, accord- 
ing to the discretion of him the sayd Walter Ralegh, his heirs, and 
assigns, and euery, or any of them. And for vniting in more perfedl 
league and aniitie, of such Countryes, landes, and territories so to be pos- 
sessed and inhabited as aforesaid with our Realmes of England and Ire- 
land, and the better encouragement of men to these enterprises : we doe 
by these presents, graunt and declare that all such Countries, so hereafter 
to be possessed and inhabited as is aforesaid, from thencefoorth shall be 
of the allegiance of vs, our heires and successours. And we doe graunt to 
the sayd Walter Ralegh, his heires, and assignes, and to all, and euery of 
them, and to all, and euery other person or persons, being of our alle- 
giance, whose names shall be noted or entred in some of our Courts of 
recorde within our Realme of England, that with the assent of the sayd 
Walter Ralegh, his heires or assignes, shall in his iourneis for discouerie, 
or in the iourneis for conquest hereafter trauaile to such lands, countreis 
and territories, as aforesayd, and to their, and to euery of their heires, 
that they, and eiiery or any of them, being e3ther borne within our sayde 
Realmes of England or Irelande, or in any other place within our alle- 
giance, and which hereafter shall be inhabiting within any of the Lands, 
Countryes, and Territories, with such licence (as aforesayd), shall and 
may haue all the priuiledges of free Denizens, and persons natiue of Eng- 
land, and within our allegiance in such like ample maner and forme, as if 
they were borne and personally resident within our said Realm of Eng- 
land, any law, custome, or vsage to the contrary notwithstanding. 

And forasmuch as vpon the finding out, discouering, or inhabiting of 
such remote lands, countries, and territories as aforesaid, it shalbe neces- 
sary for the safety of all men, that shall aduenture themselues in those 
iourneyes or voyages, to determine to Hue together in Christian peace, 
and ciuill quietnesse eche with other, whereby euery one may with more 
pleasure and profit enioy that whereunto they shall atteine with great 
paine and perill, wee for vs, our heires and successors, are likewise pleased 
and contented, and by these presents doe giue & grant to the said Walter 
Ralegh, his heires and assignes for ever, that he and they, and euery or 
any of them, shall and may from time to time for ever hereafter, within 
the said mentioned remote lands and countries, in the way by the seas 
thither, and from thence, haue full and meere power and authoritie to 
correal, punish, pardon, govern, and rule by their and euery or any of 
their good discretions and policies, as well in causes capitall, or criminall, 
as ciuil, both marine and other, all such our subie6ts, as shal from time to 
time aduenture themselues in the said iourneis or voyages, or that shall 
at any time hereafter inhabite any such lands, countreis, or territories as 
aforesaid, or that shall abide within 200 leagues of any of the sayde place 



/ATA' on i 'CTION. 1 1 

or places, where the sayde Walter Ralegh, his heires or assignes, or any oi 
them, or any of his or their associats or companies, shall inhabite within 
6 yeeres next ensuing the date hereof, according to such statutes, lawes 
and ordinances as shall be by him the sayd Walter Ralegh, his heires and 
assignes, and euery or any of them deuised, or established, for the better 
gouernment of the said people as aforesaid. So alwayes as the said stat- 
utes, lawes, and ordinances may bee, as nere as conueniently may be, 
agreeable to the forme of the lawes, statutes, gouernment, or policie of 
England, and also so as they be not against the true Christian faith, nowe 
professed in the Church of England, nor in any wise to withdrawe any of 
the subie6ls or people of those lands or places from the allegiance of vs, 
our heires and successours, as their immediate Soueraigne vnder God. 

And further, we do by these presents for vs, our heires and 
successors, giue and grant ful power and authoritie to our trustie 
and welbeloued Counsailour Sir William Cecill knight, Lorde Burghley, 
as high Treasourer of England and to the Lorde Treasourer of Eng- 
land for vs, our heires and successors for the time being, and to the 
priuie Counsaile of vs, our heires and sviccessors, or any foure or more 
of them for the time being, that he, they, or any four or more of them, 
shall and may from time to time, and at all times hereafter, vnder his or 
their handes or Scales by vertue of these presents, authorise and licence 
the sayd Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes and euery or any of them 
by him, & by themselues, or by their, or any of their sufficient Atturneis, 
Deputies, Officers, Ministers, Factors, and seruants, to imbarkc & trans- 
port out of our Realme of England and Ireland, and the Dominions 
thereof, all or any of his or their goods, and all or any the goods of his 
and their associats and companies, and euery or any of them, with such 
other necessaries and commodities of any ovir Realmes, as to the sayde 
Lorde Treasurer, or foure or more of the priuie Counsaile, ofvs, our heires 
and successors for the time being (as aforesaid) shalbe from time to time 
by his or their wisedomes, or discretions thought meete and conuenient 
for the better reliefe and supportation of him the sayde Walter Ralegh, 
his heires and assignes, and euery or any of them, and of his or their or 
any of their associats and companies, any act, statute, law, or any thing 
to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. 

Prouided alwayes, and our wil and pleasure is, and we do hereby 
declare to all Christian kings, princes, and states, that if the sayde Walter 
Ralegh, his heires or assignes, or any of them, or any other by their 
licence or appointment, shall at any time or times hereafter robbe or 
spoile by sea or by land, or doe any a6le of vniust or vnlawfull hostilitie, 
to any of the subicdls of vs, our heires or successors, or to any of the sub- 
iedls of any of the kings, princes, rulers, Gouernours, or estates, being 
then in perfeeft league and amitie with vs, our heires and successours, and 
that vpon such liniurie, or vpon iust complaint of any such Prince, 
Ruler, Gouernor, or estate, or their subiedts, wee, our heires and succes- 



13 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

sors, shall make open Proclamation within any the portes of our Realme 
of England, that the saide Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes, and 
adherents, or any to whom these our Letters patents may extende, shall 
within the termes to bee limited, by such Proclamation, make full resti- 
tution, and satisfadtion of all such iniuries done: so as both we and the 
said Princes, or other so complaining, may holde vs and themselues fully 
contented : And that if the said Walter Ralegh, his heires or assignes, 
shall not make or cause to be made satisfa6lion accordingly within such 
time so to be Hmitted, that then it shal be lawful to vs, our heires and suc- 
sessors, to put the sayde Walter Ralegh, his heires and assignes, and 
adherents, and all the inhabitants of the said places to be discouered (as is 
aforesaid) or any of them out of our allegeance and prote(5lion, and that 
from and after such time of putting out of protection of the said Walter 
Ralegh, his heires, assignes and adherents, and others so to be put out, 
and the said places within their habitation, possession and rule, shall be 
out of our allegeance and protection, and free for all Princes and others to 
pursue with hostilitie, as being not our subie6ls, nor by vs any way to be 
auouched, maintained, or defended, nor to be holden as anj' of ours, nor 
to our prote6lion, or dominion, or allegeance any way belonging: for 
that expresse mention of the cleere yeerely value of the certaintie of the 
premisses, or any part thereof, or of any other gift, or grant by vs, or any 
our progenitors, or predecessors to the said Walter Ralegh, before this 
time made in these presents bee not expressed, or any other grant, ordi- 
nance, prouision, proclamation, or restraint to the contrary thereof, 
before this time, giuen, ordained, or prouided, or any other thing, cause 
or matter whatsoeuer, in any wise notwithstanding. In witnesse whereof, 
wee haue caused these our letters to be made Patents. Witnesse our 
selues, at Westminster the fine and twentie day of March, in the sixe and 
twentith yeere of our Raigns. 

Anno 1584. 

The expedition thus inaugurated consisted of two ships, 
the one commanded by Philip Amidas, and the other by 
Arthur Barlow. They sailed from England on the 27th of 
April, 1584, and on July 4th following, arrived on the coast 
of America. Here, somewhat north of the West Indies and 
opposite what was afterwards called " Carolina," on the island 
of Wocoken, the southernmost of the islands forming Ocracoke 
Inlet, they lifted the British flag and took possession of the 
country in the name of Queen Elizabeth. 

Prophetic July 4th ! Little dreamed those mariners of 
England of the "Open Sesame" inscribed, unseen to mortal 
eye, upon that rippling banner! Little dreamed they how it 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

called upon the realms of Night to yield the sceptre of her 
ebon throne and let the Day come in ; how it bid the Arcana 
of Nature to give up to Science and to Art their hoarded 
wealth ; how it opened a way for the progress of Christianity, 
and spread out a land of light and freedom destined to 
become one of the first powers, 

"In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world." 

In September, 1584, upon their return from this voyage 
of discovery, Amidas and Barlow gave such splendid descrip- 
tions of the beauty and fertility of the country, the mildness 
of the climate, and of the gentleness of the aborigines, that 
Elizabeth, delighted with the idea of occupying so fine a ter- 
ritory, bestowed upon it the name of "Virginia," as a memo- 
rial that this happy acquisition was made under a virgin 
Queen. 

Thus did this imperial domain await the hour when, in 
the providence of God, it was conceded to the mighty forces 
at work among mankind, predestined to a Titanic progress 
under the Anglo-Saxon race, beneath the equal sway of law 
and liberty. 

Twice did Sir Walter Ralegh endeavor to plant a colony 
upon the shores of the New World. On the island of Roa- 
noke, not far from " Wocoken," in 1585 and 1587, he made 
these efforts, but failed in both attempts. Having thus 
expended many thousand pounds in vain, he used the privi- 
lege of his patent March 7, 1589, to endow a company of mer- 
chants and adventurers with large concessions, and this act 
was the connedling link between the first efforts on Roanoke 
Island and the final colonization of Virginia. 

The new instrument ("An indenture made between Sir 
Walter Ralegh, Chief Governor of Virginia, on the one part, 
and Thomas Smith, etc., etc., of the other part, witnesseth, 
etc.,") was not an assignment of Ralegh's patent, but the ex- 
tension of a grant already held under its sandlion, by increas- 
ing the number to whom the right of that charter belonged. 

The assigns of Ralegh became the leaders in applying to 
James I. for leave "to deduce a colony into Virginia." He 



14 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

consented, and on the loth of April, 1606, set his seal to the 
first colonial charter under which the English were planted 
in America. 

Although Sir Walter Ralegh was not permitted to see his 
own personal schemes realized, they yet stamp him as the 
author of the Plantation idea in Virginia, and the pioneer in 
that great "Westward Ho," which still rings in the ears of 
civilized Europe. 



I. 



SIR WALTER RALEGH. 

Chief Gover7ior of Vu'gmia 

and 
Founder of Roanoke Colony. 

1585. 

Sir Walter Ralegh, an illustrious Englishman, was 
born at Hayes, in the parish of Budley, Devonshire, in 1552. 
He was for some time at Oriel College, Oxford, but the pur- 
suits of ambition and an a(5live life were more congenial to 
his tastes than academic labors. So at the age of seventeen 
he commenced his career as a soldier, being one of a number 
of volunteers sent by Elizabeth to France to support the 
Protestants. Here he remained nearly six years, when he 
returned to England, and in 1578 embarked for the Nether- 
lands with the troops sent against the Spaniards. On get- 
ting home from this expedition, he found that his half- 
brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, had just obtained a patent 
for establishing a plantation in America, and into this scheme 
Ralegh entered with enthusiasm. They put to sea in 1579, 
but one of their ships was lost, and the remainder were crip- 
pled in an engagement with a Spanish fleet, so they came 
back without making land. 

Ralegh now began a career of brilliant services to his 
country and mankind. In his military life in Ireland his 
bravery and intelligence were so conspicuous in quelling the 
insurgents, that he was received at court with unusual favor, 
and it is narrated that his position there was much strength- 
ened by an act of knightly gallantry rendered personally to 
the Queen. One day as her Majesty was walking, the party 
came upon a muddy path, whereat the courtly Ralegh laid 



16 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

his mantle at his sovereign's feet for her to step on. EHza- 
beth, struck anew at the polished courtesy of her subject, 
made him a knight indeed, and rewarded his many loyal 
and distinguished services by several lucrative grants, in- 
cluding a large share of the forfeited estates in Ireland. 
Ralegh, whose talents only needed opportunity, now soon 
rose to positions of honor and distinction in the royal service. 
One of the most interesting subjects which occupied his 
active mind was the colonization of ' ' The New World ' ' by 
the English people. 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert's mother was the mother also, 
by a second marriage, of Sir Walter Ralegh, and it was this 
elder brother's zeal for seeking "summer isles" that first 
fired the heart of Ralegh 

"To sail beyond the sunset and the baths 
Of all the western stars ' ' 

in search of riches, fame, and power. 

On March 25, 1584, Ralegh obtained from Elizabeth an 
ample patent and the title of Lord Proprietor over an exten- 
sive region in America, which the Queen subsequently called 
"Virginia." Here, he made two unsuccessful attempts to 
found a colony, but his zeal in this matter was full of conse- 
quence and will never be forgotten in the annals of the early 
settlement of America. 

When England was threatened by the Spanish Armada, 
Ralegh joined the fleet with a squadron of ships belonging 
to gentlemen volunteers, and contributed signally to the vic- 
tory which it pleased Providence to grant the English over 
the Spaniards. He was now advanced at court, but, unfort- 
unately, fell after a time into disfavor with the Queen. His 
success in the expedition to Cadiz, however, where his valor 
and prudence contributed so largely to a victorious result, 
combined with other important services, restored him to the 
partiality of his Queen. 

But Ralegh's bravery, distinguished abilities, and great 
enterprise made him the objecfl of envy as well as of admiration. 
Queen Elizabeth conferred honors upon him, but her succes- 



SIR WALTER RALEGH. 17 

sor sent him to the Tower. During a long confinement there 
of thirteen years he wrote his "History of the World," a 
book of unusual finish and erudition ; and his contributions 
made from time to time to general literature were numerous 
and valuable. In March, 1615, he was liberated from prison, 
but not pardoned. A last unsuccessful venture in Guiana was 
the culmination of his disastrous efforts to redeem his for- 
tunes. Having failed to find the gold on which so much 
depended, he returned to England in 16 18, broken in hope 
and health. Soon afterwards he was arrested, and to please 
the Spanish, King James suffered the sentence of death to be 
executed on him. 

Ralegh's life had been full of vicissitude, and after many 
triumphs and many failures, much honor and much misfor- 
tune, he finally finished his chequered course on the scaffold 
in Old Palace Yard, London, October 29, 1618. His behavior 
at the end was calm, and after addressing the people in his 
own justification he received the stroke of death with 
perfedl composure. He remarked to the executioner, with 
a smile, as he felt the edge of the axe with his hand, 
"This is a sharp medicine, but it is one that will cure all 
diseases." 

The following beautiful tribute to Ralegh is paid by the 
distinguished American historian, George Bancroft : 

"The name of Ralegh stands highest among the statesmen of Eng- 
land who advanced the colonization of the United States. Courage which 
was never daunted, mild self-possession, and fertility of invention, insured 
him glory in his profession of arms, and his services in the conquest of 
Cadiz and the capture of Fayal established his fame as a gallant and suc- 
cessful commander. 

" No soldier in retirement ever expressed the charms of tranquil leisure 
more beautifully than Ralegh, whose 'sweet verse' Spencer described 
as ' sprinkled with nectar ' and rivalling the melodies of ' the sunmier's 
nightingale.' When an unjust verdict left him to languish for years in 
prison, with the sentence of death suspended over his head, his active 
genius plunged into the depths of erudition ; and he who had been a 
warrior, a courtier, and a seaman, became the author of an elaborate 
'History of the World.' In his civil career he was thoroughly an 
English patriot; jealous of the honor, the prosperity, and the advance- 

II 



18 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

meut of his country ; the steadfast antagonist of the exorbitant preten- 
sions of Spain. In parliament, he defended the freedom of domestic 
industry. When, through unequal legislation, taxation was a burden 
upon industry rather than wealth, he argued for a change; himself pos- 
sessed of a lucrative monopoly, he gave his voice for the repeal of all 
monopolies; he used his influence with his sovereign to mitigate the 
severity of the judgments against the non-conformists, and as a legislator 
he resisted the sweeping enactment of persecuting laws. 

"In the career of discovery, his perseverance was never baffled by 
losses. He joined in the risks of Gilbert's expedition ; contributed to 
that of Davis in the northwest, and explored in person 'the insular 
regions and broken world ' of Guiana. His lavish efforts in colonizing 
the soil of our republic, his sagacity which enjoined a settlement within 
the Chesapeake Bay, the publications of Hariot and Hakluyt which he 
countenanced, diffused over England a knowledge of America, as well as 
an interest in its destinies, and sowed the seeds of which the fruits were 
to ripen during his life-time, though not for him. 

" Ralegh had suffered in health before his last expedition. He re- 
turned broken-hearted by the defeat of his hopes, by the decay of his 
strength, and by the death of his eldest son. What shall be said of King 
James, who would open to an aged paralytic no other hope of liberty but 
through success in the discovery of mines in Guiana? What shall be said 
of a monarch who could, at that time, under a sentence which had slum- 
bered for fifteen years, order the execution of a decrepit man, whosg 
genius and valor shone through the ravages of physical decay, and whose 
English heart still beat with an undying love for his country? " 

After the lapse of two long centuries, the state of North 
Carolina revived in its capital the name of this chief author 
of early colonization in the United States, and future genera- 
tions in America will cherish the memory of Sir Walter 
Ralegh not only as the founder of Virginia, but as one whose 
laws should "be not against the true. Christian faith no we 
professed in the Church of England." 

To him belongs the meed of making here the wilderness 
and the solitary place glad, and of opening a way for the 
desert " to rejoice and blossom as a rose," 



II. 



RALPH LANE. 

Governor of Ralegh) s ist Colony. 

1585-1586. 

RaIvPH Lane, second son of Sir Ralph Lane, of Orling- 
bury, and his wife Maud, daughter of William, Lord Parr 
(uncle of Queen Catherine Parr), was born in North- 
amptonshire about 1530; entered the Queen's service in 1563, 
and was so much esteemed b}^ Elizabeth for his services as a 
soldier that she knighted him. In 1585 Sir Walter Ralegh 
sent out from England a fleet of seven sail, with people to 
form a settlement in Virginia, deputing Sir Richard Grenville 
to be General of the expedition and Mr. Ralph Lane to be 
Governor of the Colony. This was the first English settle- 
ment ever planted in America, and was established on Roanoke 
Island. It consisted of 107 persons, under the government of 
Lane. The colonists suffered great dangers from the machi- 
nations of the Indians, who at first intended to starve 
them by abandoning them, and leaving the island unsown. 
Foiled here, they next formed a conspiracy for the general 
massacre of the colonists. This, however, was frustrated 
by the vigilance of the English Governor, who contrived 
a counterplot, in execution of which Pemisapan, the 
wicked son of the good old Indian king, Ensenore, was 
slain on June i, 1586. 

Unable, however, to contend with hostile Indians and 
want of provisions, the whole Colony returned to England 
June 18, 1586. Lane carried tobacco home with him, and 
Sir Walter Ralegh, at that time a man of gaiety and fashion, 
adopting the Indian usage of smoking it, by his influence 



30 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

and example introduced it at court, where the pipe soon 
became the mode. 

Thus terminated the first EngHsh colony planted in 
America. The only acquisition made by this expensive 
experiment was a knowledge of "the weed," and a better 
acquaintance with the country and its inhabitants. 



III. 



JOHN WHITE. 
Governor of Ralegh's 2d Colony, 

1587- 

On April 26, 1587, Sir Walter Ralegh, intent on planting 
the territory of Virginia within his patent (it was "to con- 
tinue the space of six years, and no more ' ' ) sent out another 
company of 150 adventurers. He incorporated them by the 
name, "The Borough of Ralegh in Virginia," and consti- 
tuted John White, Governor, in whom, with a council of 
twelve persons, the legislative power was vested; and they 
were diredled to plant at the Bay of Chesapeake and to eredt 
a fort there. They, however, landed at Roanoke, July 22, and 
commenced a second plantation. On August 13, Manteo, 
a friendly Indian, was baptized in Roanoke, and according 
to a previous order of Sir Walter Ralegh was called, Lord 
of Roanoke. On the i8tli of August, Mrs. Dare, daughter of 
the Governor, gave birth to a daughter in Roanoke, and 
on the next Lord's day the infant was baptized " Virginia," 
being the first English child born in the country. On the 27th 
of August, at the urgent solicitation of the whole Colony, the 
Governor sailed for England to procure supplies, but of his 
countrymen who remained behind, nothing was ever after- 
wards known. 

Governor White, though personally detained in England 
(being of the Queen's Council and the country threatened 
with war), sent in 1588 supplies for the relief of the Colony, 
but this expedition, more intent on taking prizes than in 
sailing to Virginia, was finally disabled and rifled by two 
men of war and was compelled to put back for England. 
In 1590, however. Governor White, being at liberty to 
return to his Colony, sailed March 20 from Plymouth with 

21 



32 JOHN WHITE. 

three ships and went to the place where he had left the 
English settlers. Coming to this landing point, he found on 
a tree at the top of the bank, CRO carved in distindt Roman 
letters, but the cross, the sign of distress, was wanting ; further 
on they found carved on a tree, CROATOAN. This Croatoan 
was an Indian town on the north side of Cape Lookout, and 
thither Governor White determined to sail next day, but a 
violent storm arose and being short of water and provisions 
they went back to England. It is said that Ralegh sent 
out five times, at his own charges, to the succor of the Colony 
left in Virginia in 1587. Other efforts were also made to 
search for these lost emigrants, but all to no avail. Their 
fate was never known, and so ended in tragic eclipse Sir 
Walter Ralegh's enterprise for settling the New World. 
The Governor of this last ill-starred effort, John White, 
came first to Virginia with Governor Eane in 1585, and was 
always interested in this initial work. Though White's 
Colony met with such a doubtful fate in his absence, he 
sought again and again to find some traces of it, and was 
conspicuous in his concern in the adventure of settling America. 
He was a good artist, made maps of the various portions 
of Virginia which he visited and drawings of the inhabitants, 
etc. Some of his paintings are now in the Sloane collec- 
tion and in the Greenville Library, British Museum. 



IV. 



SIR THOMAS SMITH. 

First Preside7it of the London Company^ and its' 

Treasurer. 

1605-1607. 

King James I., having recently made peace with Spain, 
and the passion for the discovery of a northwest passage being 
now in its full vigor, a ship was sent out with a view to this 
purpose by the Earl of Southampton and Lord Arundel, under 
the command of Capt. George Weymouth. He sailed from 
England on the last of March, 1605, and remained a month 
exploring the American coast. The discovery of which he 
seems to have been proudest was that of the Penobscot River. 
On his return to England he took with him five Indians, three 
of whom he yielded to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the Governor 
of the town of Plymouth, whose attention was thus addressed 
to the New World. The information Gorges gathered from 
Weymouth filled him with the strongest desire to become a 
proprietary of lands beyond the Atlantic. His influence, with 
that of Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice of England, and 
the combined enthusiasm of the assigns of Ralegh, were the 
means employed by Providence to induce King James I. to 
set his seal to the patent of April 10, 1606. He divided that 
portion of North America which stretches from the 34th to the 
45th degree of north latitude into two distri(5ls, nearly equal. 
The southern, called the First Colony, he granted to the Lon- 
don Company; the northern, called the Second Colony, he 
granted to the Plymouth Company. He authorized Sir 
Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hakluyt, 
Edward Maria Wingfield. and their associates, chiefly resi- 
dent in London, to settle any part that they should choose 
of the southern distridl, and vested in them a right of prop- 
as 



34 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

erty to the land extending along the coast fifty miles on each 
side of the place of their first habitation, and reaching into 
the interior country loo miles. The northern distridl he 
allotted as a place of settlement to several knights, gentle- 
men, and merchants of Bristol, Plymouth, and other parts of 
the West of England, with a similar grant of territory. The 
following is an extra(5l from the instrudlions given for the gov- 
ernment of the Colonies : 

ARTICLES, INSTRUCTIONS AND ORDERS made, sett down and 
established by us, the twentieth day of November, in the year of our 
raigne of England, France, and Ireland the fourth and of Scotland 
the fortieth, for the good Order and Government of the tivo several 
Colonies and Plantations to be made by our loving subjeBs, in the 
Cojititry coimnonly called I 'irginia and America, betiueen thirty-four 
and forty-five degrees from the crquinoctial line. 

Wheras Wee, by our letters pattents under our great seale of England, 
bearing date att Westminster, the tenth day of Aprill, in the year of our 
raigne of England, France and Ireland the fourth, and of Scotland the 
39th, have given lycence to sundry our loving subjects named in the said 
letters pattents and to their associates, to deduce and conduct two several 
Colonies or plantations of sundry our loving people willing to abide and 
inhabit in certain parts of Virginia and America, with divers prehemi- 
nences, priviledges, authorities and other things, as in and by the same 
letters pattents more particularly it appeareth. Wee according to the effedt 
and true meaning of the same letters pattents, doe by these presents, 
signed with our hand, signe manuel and sealed with our privy seale of 
our realme of England, establish and ordaine, that our trusty and well 
beloved Sir William Wade, Knight, our Lieutenant of our Tower of Lon- 
don, Sir Thomas Smith, Knight, Sir Walter Cope, Knight, Sir George 
Moor, Knight, Sir Francis Popeham, Knight, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 
Knight, Sir John Trevor, Knight, Sir Henry Montague, Knight, recorder 
of the citty of London, Sir William Rumney, Knight, John Dodderidge, 
Esq., SoUicitor General, Thomas Warr, Esqr., John Eldred of the citty of 
London, merchant, Thomas James of the citty of Bristol, merchant, and 
James Bagge of Plymouth, in the county of Devonshire, merchant, shall 
be our councel for all matters which shall happen in Virginia or any the 
territories of America, between thirty-four and fourty-five degrees from 
the sequinoctial line northward, and the Islands to the several collonies 
limitted and assigned, and that they shall be called the King's Councel of 
Virginia, which councel or the most part of them shal have full power 
and authority, att our pleasure, in our name, and under us, our heires and 
successors, to give directions to the councels of the several collonies which 



Sm THOMAS SMITH. 25 

shal be vdthin any part of the said country of Virginia and America, 
within the degrees first above mentioned, with the Islands aforesaid, for 
the good government of the people to be planted in those parts, and for 
the good ordering and desposing of all causes happening within the same, 
and the same to be done for the substance thereof, as neer to the common 
lawes of England, and the equity thereof, as may be, and to passe under 
our scale, appointed for that councel, which councel, and every and any 
of them shall, from time to time be increased, altered or changed, and 
others put in their places, att the nomination of us, our heires and suc- 
cessors, and att our and their will and pleasure, and the same councel of 
Virginia, or the more part of them, for the time being, shall nominate and 
appoint the first several councellours of those several councells, which are 
to be appointed for those two several colonies, which are to be made plan- 
tations in Virginia and America, between the degrees before mentioned, 
according to our said letters pattents in that behalfe made ; and that each 
of the same councels of the same several colonies shal, by the major part 
of them, choose one of the same councel, not being the minister of God's 
word, to be president of the same councel, and to continue in that office 
by the space of one whole year unless he shall in the meantime dye or be 
removed firom the office ; and we doe further hereby establish and ordaine, 
that it shal be lawful for the major part of either of the said councells, 
upon any just cause, either absence or otherwise, to remove the president 
or any other of that councel, from being either president, or any of that 
councel ; and upon the deathes or removal of any of the presidents or 
councel, it shall be lawful for the major part of that councel to ele6t 
another in the place of the party soe dying or removed, so alwaies, as 
they shal not be above thirteen of either of the said councellours, and wee 
doe establish and ordaine, that the president shal not continue in his office 
of presidentship above the space of one year; and wee doe specially 
ordaine, charge, and require the said president and councells, and the 
ministers of the said several colonies respectively, within their several 
limits and precincts, that they, with all diligence, care, and respect, doe 
provide, that the true word and service of God and Christian faith be 
preached, planted, and used, not only within every of the said several 
colonies, and plantations, but alsoe as much as they may amongst the 
salvage people which doe or shall adjoine unto them, or border upon them, 
according to the doctrines, rights, and religion now professed and estab- 
lished within our realme of England. 

Sir Thomas Smith, chief of the assignees of the patent 
of Sir Walter Ralegh, was the first President of the Coun- 
cil of the lyondon Company of Virginia, and its Treasurer 
until the close of 1618. His services in establishing a Colony 
in Virginia, and thus securing a foothold for England in 



26 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

America, cannot be overestimated, and a history of the fac- 
tions in the Virginia Company after this period of its earliest 
inauguration, will show the storms and struggles through 
which the infant Colony began its life. Sir Thomas Smith 
was the third son of Thomas Smith, commonly called "Mr. 
Customer Smith," and Alice, daughter and heiress of Sir 
Andrew Judde, Lord Mayor of lyondon (by whom he 
acquired the manors of Ashford and Westure). Sir Thomas 
Smith was born about 1558, was educated at Oxford, and at 
an early age became a prominent man. 

It is greatly to be regretted that the history of Sir Thomas 
Smith's administration of affairs in Virginia rests almost 
entirely upon the adverse testimony of his opponents. But 
that his services were recognized by the crown, is to be seen 
in the fadt that in the second charter to "The Treasurer and 
Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of lyondon 
for the First Colony in Virginia," he was named as one of 
"our Council for the said Company." 

' ' And the said Thomas Smith we do ordain to be Treas- 
urer of the said Company, which Treasurer shall have authority 
to give order for the warning of the Council and summoning 
the Company to their courts and meetings." 

That the distant colonists may have had their grievances 
is true, as is related in " A Briefe Declaration of the Planta- 
tion of Virginia Duringe the First Twelve Yeares, when Sir 
Thomas Smith was Governor of the Companie, and downe 
to the present tyme" (1621), but, the conclusion is inevitable 
that Sir Thomas Smith had much to do with the permanent 
establishment of the Virginia Colony. He was Treasurer and 
Governor of the Company during the first twelve years, which 
ended the i8th of November, 1618, and his administration 
was confined to a presidency of the Council and Company in 
England, while the affairs of the Colony were managed b)- one 
of the Council resident there. He was never actually Gov- 
ernor in Virginia. 

It was on March 9, 1607, that King James I. issued the 
following : 

' ' An Ordinance and Constitution enlarging the number of 



SIR THOMAS SMITH. 27 

our Councel for the two several Colonies and Plantations in 
Virginia and America, between thirty-four and forty-five de- 
grees of northerly latitude, and augmenting their authority, 
for the better direcfting and ordering of such things as shall 
concerne the said Colony." * 

Sir Thomas Smith died Sept. 4, 1625, at his house at 
Tunbridge, and was buried under a most superb monument 
in Hone Church, Kent. 

The following inscription will give some idea of the scope 
of his usefulness, and the honors which he won : 

"To the glory of God, and to the pious memorie of the 
honorable Sir Thomas Smith, Knt. (late Governor of the East 
Indian, Muscovia, French, and Sommer Island Companies; 
Treasurer for the Virginia Plantation ; prime undertaker [in 
the year 16 12] for that noble designe, the discoverie of the 
North-West passage ; principall commissioner for the London 
expedition against the pirates and for a voiage to the ryver 
Senega, upon the coast of Africa ; one of the chief commis- 
sioners for the navie-roial, and sometime ambassador from 
His Majestic of Great Britain to the emperour and great duke 
of Russia and Muscovia, etc.), who, havinge judiciously, con- 
scionably, and with admirable facility, managed many difficult 
and weighty affairs to the honor and profit of this nation, 
rested from his labors the 4th day of Septm., 1625." 

*From a MS. record book in the Land Office of Virginia — Book No. 2. See Hening's 
" Statutes at Large" (Virginia), Vol. I., pp. 76-79. 



V. 

EDWARD MARIA WINGFIELD. 

President of the Council in Virginia. 

May 13, 1607, to September 10, 1607. 

On the reception of the patent from King James, April 10, 
1606, several persons of consequence in the English nation 
undertook the arduous task of planting the Southern Col- 
ony. Having chosen a Treasurer, and appointed other offi- 
cers, they provided a fleet of three ships to transport the 
emigrants, 100 in number, to Virginia. The charge of this 
embarkation was committed to Christopher Newport, already 
famous for his skill in western navigation, who sailed 
from the Thames on the 20th of December, carrying with 
him the royal instru(5lions and the names of the intended 
Colonial Council, carefully concealed in a box. It was the 
intention of Captain Newport to land at Roanoke, but being 
driven by a violent storm to the northward of that place, he 
stood diredlly into the spacious Bay of Chesapeake, which 
seemed to invite his entrance. The promontory on the south 
of the bay he named Cape Henry, in honor of the Prince of 
Wales, and that on the north Cape Charles, in honor of the 
Duke of York, afterward King Charles I. of England. 
Thirty men going on shore at Cape Henry for recreation 
were suddenly assaulted by five Indians, who wounded two 
of them very dangerously. At night the box was opened 
and the orders were read, in which Bartholomew Gosnold, 
John Smith, Edward Wingfield, Christopher Newport, 
John Ratcliffe, John Martin, and George Kendall were 
named to be of the Council, and to choose from their number 
a President for a year, who, with the Council, should govern 
the Colony. The adventurers were employed in seeking a 

28 



EDWARD MARIA WINGFIELD. 29 

place for settlement until the i3tli of May, when they took 
possession of a peninsula on the north side of the river Pow- 
hatan (called by the English, James River), about forty miles 
from its mouth. To make room for their projecfled town, 
they here began to cut down the trees of the forest, which 
had for centuries afforded shelter and food to the natives. 
The code of laws, hitherto cautiously concealed, was at 
length promulgated. Affairs of moment were to be exam- 
ined by a jury, but determined by the major part of the 
Council, in which the President was to have two voices. The 
Council was sworn, Wingfield was chosen President, and " now 
commenced the rule of the most ancient administration of 
Virginia, consisting of seven persons, and forming a pure 
aristocracy." In honor of King James, they called the town 
they now built, Jamestown. 

"Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, of Stoneley Priorye" 
in Huntingdonshire, was born 1560. He commenced life as 
a soldier and was a prisoner of war at Eisle with Ferdinando 
Gorges, where probably their friendship began, which resulted 
in a closer association in the colonizing of Virginia. Wingfield 
was eledted. May 4, 1607, the first President of the first Council 
of the first permanent English Colony in America, but becom- 
ing obnoxious to the Company he was deposed from the presi- 
dency, September 10, 1607, and Captain Ratcliffe eledled in his 
place. Wingfield was of a Catholic family. Cardinal Pole 
and Queen Mary were sponsors for his father. He left Vir- 
ginia, April 10, 1608, and arrived in England, May 21, 1608. 
He wrote " A Discourse of Virginia," which was first printed 
in i860 by the American Antiquarian Society. 



VI. 

JOHN RATCLIFFE. 

President of the Council in Virginia. 
September lo, 1607, to September 7, 1608. 

Captain John Ratci^iffe was President of the Virginia 
Colony from September 10, 1607, to September 7, 1608, when, 
suffering from a wounded hand, he went to England, but re- 
turned the following year, in July, in command of the Diamond, 
with colonists. Many dissensions divided the Colony at this 
time and its history is a sad recital of rivalries and jealousies, 
privations and sufferings, among the settlers, and dangers seen 
and unseen from the treacherous Indians. 

It is said that Ratcliffe was ' ' betrayed and murdered by 
Powhatan in the winter of 1609-1610." In one of the man- 
uscripts preserved by the remarkable Hakluyt, which came 
into the hands of the Rev. Samuel Purchas, and which was 
" written by that honorable gentleman. Master George 
Percy," we read: "The eleventh day (September, 1607) 
there was certain articles laid against Master Wingfield, which 
was then President ; thereupon he was not only displaced out 
of his Presidentship, but also from being of the Councell. 
Afterwards Captaine John Ratcliffe was chosen President." 



30 



VII. 

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

President of the Council in Virginia. 
September lo, 1608, to August, 1609. 

Captain John Smith, according to his own account, ' ' was 
born in Willoughby in lyincolneshire, and a scholler in the 
two free schooles of Alford and Louth. His father anciently 
descended from the ancient Smiths of Crudley in Lancashire, 
his mother from the Rickands at great Heck in Yorkshire. 
His parents dying when he was about thirteene years of age, 
left him a competent means, which hee not being capable to 
manage little regarded ; his minde being even then set upon 
brave adventures, sould his satchell, books, and all he had, 
intending secretly to get to sea, but that his father's death 
stayed him." 

In the register of the Willoughb)' Rectory is found an 
entry of the baptism of John, son of George Smith, under date 
of January 9, 1579. Peculiarly courageous, restless, and fond 
of adventure, he left his native country at the age of fifteen, 
traveled in France, and served in the Netherlands, a soldier in 
the cause of libert3^ After having returned to England and 
devoted some attention to military tactics and history, he 
went again to France and embarked thence for Italy with a 
company of Pilgrims, who, regarding him as a heretic, threw 
him into the sea near a small island off Nice, to calm a tem- 
pest by which they were overtaken. He swam to the shore 
and proceeded to Alexandria. In returning, he entered the 
service of Hungary against the Turks, where he soon distin- 
guished himself and obtained the command of a bodj^ of horse. 
At the siege of Regal, a Turkish nobleman sending a chal- 
lenge to fight with any Christian captain who would venture 
a contest for the amusement of the ladies, Smith accepted 

31 



32 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

the offer, and meeting his antagonist on horseback bore away 
his head, and gained a similar victory in a second and third 
contest. For this exploit he was given a coat of arms, as 
seen bj' the following : 

" Sigismundus Bathor, by the Grace of God, Duke of 
Transilvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia, Earle of Anchard, 
Salford and Growenda ; to whom this Writing may come or 
appeare. Know that We have given leave and licence to 
John Smith, an English Gentleman, Captaine of 250 Soul- 
diers, under the most Generous and Honourable Henry 
Volda, Earl of Meldritch, Salmaria, and Peldvia, Colonell of 
a thousand horse, and fifteen hundred foot, in the warres of 
Hungary, and in the provinces aforesaid under our author- 
ity ; whose service doth deserve all praise and perpetuall 
memory towards us, as a man that did for God and his 
Country overcome his enemies: Wherefore out of Our 
love and favour, according to the law of Armes, We have 
ordained and given him in his shield of Armes, the figure 
and description of three Turks' heads, which with his sword 
before the towne of Regall, in single combat he did overcome, 
kill, and cut off, in the Province of Transilvania." 

Captain Smith was afterwards taken prisoner by the 
Turks, and sold as a slave. Escaping from this tyranny, he 
traveled much in Northern Europe, passed into Spain, and 
finally went to Morocco. From thence he returned to Eng- 
land. Aged about 26 and full of experience and honors, he 
eagerly joined in the great drama of discovery and adventure 
in which he found some of his countrymen engaged. He 
entered with enthusiasm into the project of colonizing the 
New World, and with Newport, Gosnold, Ratcliffe, Wing- 
field, Hunt, and others, set out in December, 1606, with a 
squadron of three small vessels for Virginia, under the 
authority of a charter granted by James I. The Sarah Con- 
sta?it, in charge of Captain Christopher Newport, the com- 
mander of the expedition, carried seventy-one men ; the 
Godspeed, in charge of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, carried 
fifty-two men, and the Discove?y, a pinnace, in charge of John 
Ratcliffe, carried twenty men. They landed May 13th, at 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 33 

Jamestown. Amidst the unhappy dissensions, difficulties, 
and distresses of the first years of the great enterprise, Smith 
rendered the most important services by his irrepressible 
hopefulness, his practical wisdom, and his vigorous govern- 
ment. But for his wisdom and noble exertions the projedl 
would probably have been abandoned. He made important 
geographical explorations and discoveries. In 1607, ascend- 
ing the Chickahominj^ and penetrating into the interior of the 
country, he and his comrades were captured by the Indians, 
and he only, by his rare self-possession, escaped with life. He 
remained a prisoner for some weeks, carefully observed the 
country, got some knowledge of the language of the natives, 
and when at last they were going to put him to death, he 
was saved by the affectionate pleading of Pocahontas, the 
daughter of the chief Powhatan, a girl ten or twelve years 
old. Reconducted to Jamestown, Smith had need for all his 
energy to save the desponding colonists. In the summer 
of 1608 he explored in an open boat the Bay of the Chesa- 
peake and its tributary' rivers, a navigation of nearly 3000 
miles. He also penetrated inland, established friendly rela- 
tions wnth the Indians, and prepared a map of the country. 
On his return from this wonderful expedition, he was made 
President of the Colonial Council. In 1609 he was severely 
injured by an accidental explosion of gunpowder, and without 
reward for his splendid services, except in his own conscience 
and the applause of the world, returned to England. 

Three times had Smith prevented the abandonment of the 
Colony, preserved it from starvation and destruction for nearlj- 
three years, and had left it, on a change of administration, in 
a condition to take care of itself with judicious management. 
This great work, accomplished in a new settlement rent by 
intestine dissensions and threatened hourly with destruction 
by a wily and powerful foe, would surely entitle the author of 
it, to be called "The Father of the Colony." 

It was during Captain Smith's term of office as President 
of the Colonial Council that King James I. granted "The 
second Charter to the Treasurer and Company, for Virginia, 
erecting them into a corporation and Body Politic, and for 

III 



34 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

the further enlargement and explanation of the privileges of 
the said Company and First Colony of Virginia."* 

Having returned to England in a torn and bleeding state 
from his injury, in the autumn of 1609, Captain Smith remained 
there until March 3, 16 14, when he set sail on a voyage of dis- 
covery to North Virginia. He ranged the coast east and west 
from Penobscot to Cape Cod, and bartered with the natives for 
beaver and other furs. By this voyage he made a profit of 
nearl}^ ^1500. From the observations which he now made, 
on shores, islands, harbors, and headlands, he on his return 
home formed a map, and presented it to Prince Charles, who, 
in the warmth of admiration, declared that the country should 
be called New England. 

Smith in this vo5'age made several discoveries, and distin- 
guished them by peculiar names. The northern promontory 
of Massachusetts Bay, forming the eastern entrance into the 
bay, he named Tragabigzanda, in honor of a Turkish lady to 
whom he had been formerly a slave at Constantinople. Prince 
Charles, however, in filial respecfl to his mother, called it 
Cape Ann, a name which it still retains. The three small 
islands lying at the head of the promontory, Smith called 
the "Three Turks' Heads," in memory of his victory over 
three Turkish champions ; but this name has also been changed . 
Another cluster of islands, to which the discoverer gave his 
own name, "Smith's Isles," was afterwards denominated 
"The Isles of Shoals," and still retains that name. On one 
of these isles (Star Island), erected on the southerly summit, 
stands a marble shaft in honor of John Smith. 

Encouraged by commercial success. Smith, in 1615, in the 
employment of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and of friends in Eon- 
don who were members of the Plymouth Company, endeavored 
to establish a colony in New England. Sixteen men were all 
whom the adventurers destined for this occupation. The 
attempt was unsuccessful. Smith was forced by violent 
storms to return. Again renewing his enterprise, he suffered 
from the treachery of his companions, and was intercepted by 

* Dated May 23d, 1609, James i.st, Stith'.s App., No. 2, See Henins's "Statutes at 
Large," Vol. I., p. 80 (Virginia), 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 35 

French pirates. His ship having been taken away, he him- 
self escaped alone, in an open boat, from the harbor of 
Rochelle. The severest privations in a new settlement would 
have been less wearisome than the labors which his zeal now 
prompted him to undertake. Having published a map and a 
description of New England, he spent many months in 1617 
visiting the merchants and gentry of the West of England, to 
excite their enterprise. He proposed to the cities, mercantile 
profits to be realized in short and safe voyages ; to the noble- 
men, vast dominions; from men of small means, his earnest- 
ness concealed the hardships of emigrants, and upon the dark 
ground drew a lively pidlure of the rapid advancement of for- 
tune by colonial industry, of the abundance of game, the 
delights of unrestrained liberty, and the pleasures to be derived 
from ' ' angling and crossing the sweet air from isle to isle 
over the silent streams of a calm sea." The Company 
began now to form vast plans of colonization ; Smith was 
appointed Admiral of the country for life, and a renewal of the 
letters patent, with powers analogous to those possessed by 
the Southern Company, became an objecft of eager solicitation. 
But a new charter was not obtained without vigorous opposi- 
tion. After two years' entreaty, the ambitious adventurers 
gained ever^^thing which they had solicited, and in Novem- 
ber, 1620, King James issued to forty of his subjedls, some of 
them members of his household and his government, the most 
wealthy and powerful of the English nobility, a patent, which 
in American annals, and even in the history of the world, has 
scarcel}- a parallel. The adventvirers and their successors were 
incorporated as "The Council established at Plymouth, in the 
County of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering, and gov- 
erning New England, in America." 

Smith never lived to see, even partially realized, his hopes 
of colonization in South or North Virginia. He demonstrated 
the power of enthusiasm in accomplishing great ends, but like 
many another hero, he fell unhonored while his work went on. 
For twenty years he was a voluminous writer, and with his 
sword and pen laid the foundations of the noble commonwealth 
of Virginia, whose glor>' will ever shed luster on his name. 



86 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

"Captain John Smith died unmarried, nor is there any 
record that he ever had wife or children. This disposes of 
the claim of subsequent John Smiths to be descended from 
him. He was the last of that race ; the others are imitations. 
He was wedded to glory. That he was not insensible to the 
charms of female beauty, and to the heavenly pity in their 
hearts, which is their chief grace, his writings abundantly 
evince ; but to taste the pleasures of dangerous adventure, to 
learn war, and to pick up his living with his sword, and to 
fight wherever piety showed recompense would follow, was 
the passion of his youth, while his manhood was given to the 
arduous ambition of enlarging the domains of England, and 
enrolling his name among those heroes who make an inefface- 
able impression upon their age. There was no time in his 
life when he had leisure to marry, or when it would have been 
consistent with his schemes to have tied himself to a home." 

He died in London, June 21, 1 631, in his fifty-second year, 
and was buried in St. Sepulcher's Church. 

The following record is taken from Stow's "Survey of 
London," 1633 : 

"This table is on the south side of the choir in St. Sepulcher's, with 
this inscription : 

To The Living Memory 

of his 

Deceased Friend, 

CAPTAINE JOHN SMITH, 

Who Departed this Mortall Life 

on the 

2ist Day of June, 1631. 

with his arms and this motto : 

Accord a in us, viiicere est vivere. 

Here lies one conquer'd 

that hath conquer'd Kings, 
Subdu'd large Territories, 

and done things 
Which to the World 

impossible would seeme, 
But that the truth 

is held in more esteeme, 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 3t 

Shall I report 

His former service done 
In honour of his God 

and Christendome : 
How that he did 

divide from Pagans three. 
Their heads and Lives, 

types of his chivalry : 
For which great service 

in that Climate done, 
Brave Sigismundvis 

(King of Hungarion) 
Did give him as a Coat 

of Armes to weare, 
Those conquer 'd heads 

got by his Sword and Speare ? 
Or shall I tell 

of his adventures since. 
Done in Virginia, 

that large Continence? 
How that he subdu'd 

Kings unto his yoke, 
And made those heathen flie, 

as wind doth smoke : 
And made their Land, 

being of so large a Station, 
A habitation 

for our Christian Nation : 
Where God is glorifi'd, 

their wants suppli'd. 
Which else for necessaries 

might have di'd? 
But what avails his Conquest, 

now he lyes 
Inter'd in earth, 

a prey for Wormes and Flies ? 
O may his soule 

in sweet Elizium sleepe, 
Until the Keeper 

that all soules doth keepe, 
Return to judgement, 

and that after thence, 
With Angels he may have 

his recompence. 
"Captain John Smith, sometime Govenour of / 'iroinia, and Admirall 
New England." 



38 THE GOVERNORS OE VlRCthUA. 

"The same day that he died, he made his last will, to which he ap- 
pended his mark, as he seems to have l^een too feeble to write his name. 
He commends his soul ' into the hands of Almighty God, my Maker, hoping 
through the merits of Christ Jesus, my Redeemer, to receive full remission 
of all my sins, and to inherit a place in the everlasting kingdom ' ; his body 
he commits to the earth whence it came, and ' of such worldly goods whereof 
it hath pleased God in His mercy to make me an unworthy receiver, ' he 
beqvieathes, first, to Thomas Packer, Esq., one of His Majesty's clerks of 
the Privy Seal, ' all my houses, lands, tenautements and hereditaments 
whatsoever, situate, lying and being in the parishes of Louthe and Great 
Carleton, in the county of Lincoln, together with m}^ coat of armes, etc., 
etc' He also leaves a legacy to his 'Sister Smith,' the widow of his 
brother, etc. This coat of arms is described in Burke's ' Encyclopedia of 
Heraldr)' ' as granted to Captain John Smith, of the Smiths of Crudley 
County, Lancaster, as follows: ' Vert, a chev. gu betw. three Turks' heads 
couped ppr turbaned or. Crest — An Ostrich or. holding in the mouth a 
horseshoe or. ' " 

So passed from the arena of life a man who has left his 
impress upon the world's histor3^ To contemplate his 
career as a whole, it presents only a view of marvelous 
exploits and heroic adventures, with scanty foreshadowings 
in his brief journey of two and fifty years, of the mighty con- 
sequences of his life-work. But, in the section of that pano- 
rama which shows Captain Smith as the founder of the James- 
town Colony, we see now beyond the canvas, and behold, a 
mighty empire has arisen where those brave settlers led the 
way. An organized and powerful home of freedom stretches 
from sea to sea; and with "one country, one constitution, 
and one destiny," the invitation has gone out to all the peo- 
ples of the earth to come and join in this great heritage ! 

The following extradls afford an interesting insight to a 
portion of early Virginia history, and also show the honor in 
which Captain John Smith was held by some distinguished 
Americans of the nineteenth century : 

On "the tenth of September, 1608, by the eledlion of the Councell and 
request of the Company, Captain Smith received the Letters Patents, which 
till then by no meanes he would accept, though he was often importuned 
thereunto. Now, the building of Ratcliffe's Pallace stayed as a thing need- 
lesse ; the Church was repaired ; the Store-house recouered ; buildings 
prepared for the Supplyes we expecSled ; the Fort reduced to a fine square 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 39 

forme ; the order of the Watch renewed ; the squadrons (each setting of 
the Watch) trained ; the whole Company euery Saturday exercised in the 
plaine by the west Bulwarke, prepared for that purpose, we called Smith- 
field ; where sometimes more than an hundred Salvages would stand in an 
amazement to behold how a fyle would batter a tree, where he would make 
tliem a niarke to shoot at ; the boats trinmied for trade, which being sent 
out with Lieutenant Percy, in their Journey incountred the second Sup- 
ply, that brought them back to discover the Country of Monacan." — The 
True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith. 

"The summer of 1608 is remarkable in the Virginia annals for the 
first voyage towards the source of the Chesapeake. Captain John Smith, 
in an open barge, with fourteen persons and a very scanty stock of pro- 
visions, explored the whole of that great extent of water, from Cape Henry 
where it meets with the ocean to the river Susquehanna ; trading with some 
tribes of Indians, and fighting with others. He discovered and named 
many small islands, creeks, and inlets ; sailed up many of the great rivers ; 
and explored the inland parts of the country. Smith after sailing about 
3,000 miles, returned to Jamestown. Having made careful observations 
during this excursion of discovery, he drew a map of Chesapeake Bay and 
of the rivers, annexing to it a description of the countries, and of the nations 
inhabiting them, and sent it to the Council in England ; and this map was 
made with such admirable exactness that it is the original from which all 
subsequent maps and descriptions of Virginia have been chiefly copied.. 
His superior abilities obtained the ascendenc}' over envy and fadlion. 
Although he had lately been refused a seat at the Council board, he was 
now, by the ele6tion of the Council and the request of the settlers, invested 
with the government, and received letters patent to be President of the 
Colony. The wisdom of his administration infused confidence ; its vigor 
commanded obedience." — Annals of America, by Abiel Holmes. 

" Captain Smith, who next to Sir Walter Ralegh may be considered 
as the founder of our Colony, has written its history from the first adven- 
tures to it, till the year 1624. He was a member of the Council and after- 
wards President of the Colony, and to his efforts principally may be ascribed 
its support against the opposition of the natives. He was honest, sensible, 
and well-informed, but his style is barbarous and uncouth. His history, 
however, is almost the only source from which we derive any knowledge 
of the infancy of our state." — Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State oj 
Virginia. 

"He united the highest spirit of adventure with eminent powers of 
adlion. His courage and self-possession accomplished what others es- 
teemed desperate. Fruitful in expedients, he was prompt in execution. 
He was accustomed to lead, not to send, his men to danger ; would suffer' 
want rather than borrow, and starve sooner than not to pay. He had a 



40 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

just idea of the public good and his country's honor. To his vigor, indus- 
try, and resolution the survival of the Colony is due. He clearly discerned 
that it was the true interest of England not to seek in Virginia for gold 
and sudden wealth, but to enforce regular industry. ' Nothing,' said he, 
'is to be expedted thence but by labor.' " — Bancroft's History of the 
United States of America. 

"Discord, anarchy, and confusion mark the early history of these 
colonists (1608), and but for the genius, courage, and skill of Smith, they 
had shared the fate of the Colony of Roanoke. Guided by his talents, 
influenced by his example, under the wise administration of Smith, the 
Colony of Virginia was founded." — Historical Sketches of North Caro- 
lina, by fohti H. Wheeler. 

" In proof of the religious charadter of Captain Smith, as a part of the 
history of James City Parish, I quote the following account of the first 
place of worship in the same, etc.: 

" ' Now, because I have spoken so much for the body, give me leave 
to say somewhat of the soul; and the rather, because I have been 
demanded by so many, how we began to preach the Gospel in Virginia, 
and by what authority, what churches we had, our order of service, and 
maintenance for our ministers; therefore, I think it not amiss to satisfie 
their demands, it being the mother of all our Plantations, entreating pride 
to spare laughter, to understand her simple beginnings and proceedings. 
When I went first to Virginia, I well remember, we did hang an awning 
(which is an old sail) to three or four trees, to shadow us from the sun ; 
our walls were rails of wood, our seats unhewed trees till we cut planks, 
our pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighboring trees ; in foul weather 
we shifted into an old rotten tent, for we had few better; and this came 
by way of adventure for new. This was our church till we built a homely 
thing like a barn, set upon crotchetts, covered with rafts, sedge, and 
earth ; so was also the walls. The best of our houses were of the like cur- 
iosity, but the most part far much worse workmanship, that could neither 
well defend wind nor rain, yet we had daily Common Prayer, morning 
and evening, every Sunday two sermons, and every three months the 
holy communion, till our minister died (the Rev. Mr. Hunt). But (after 
that) our prayers daily, with an homily on Sundays, we continued two or 
three years after, till more preachers came, and surely God did most mer- 
cyfuUy hear us, etc. 

Capt. John Smith.' 

"Of the piety of Captain Smith we have further evidence in the 
account given of the survey of Virginia, when he and his valiant com- 
rades fell into so many perils among the Indians. ' Our order was daily 
to have prayer with a psalm, at which solemnity the poor savages much 
wondered. ' 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 41 

"On Smith's return to Jamestown, notwithstanding all former oppo- 
sition, such were his merits and such its difficulties that the Council 
eledled him President of the Colony ; and the first thing done was to 
repair the church, which, during his absence among the Indians, had, 
with other houses, been destroyed by fire. Characfleristic and evincive of 
piety in him is the statement of it : — ' Now the bviilding of the palace 
was stayed as a thing needless., and the church was repaired.'"''— '' Old 
Churches,'' etc., by Bishop Williani Meade, P. E. C. 

" He was one of the persons selected by the Company to govern the 
infant Colony of Virginia; he was entrusted with the charge of two expe- 
ditions to New England, and was appointed Admiral of that country. 
His maps of the countries he visited, and descriptions of their inhabit- 
ants, are acknowledged by all writers to be remarkably accurate, and the 
estimation in which he was held by those who knew him best is admira- 
bly expressed by one of the writers in the ' Oxford Tradl, ' upon the occa- 
sion of his departure from the Colony, in these words: 'What shall I 
saye, but thus we lost him ; that in all his proceedings made justice his 
first guide, and experience his second, ever hating basenesse, sloth, pride, 
and indignitie more than any dangers ; that never allowed more for him- 
selfe than for his soldiers with him ; that upon no danger would send 
them where he would not lead them himselfe ; that would never see us 
want what he either had or could by any means get us ; that would rather 
want than borrow, or starve than not pay ; that loved adlion more than 
wordes, and hated falsehood and covetousness worse than death ; whose 
adventures were our lives, and whose losse our deathes. ' 

"The London Company were prompted in sending out the Colony by 
the desire of immediate gain, and when disappointed threatened to aban- 
don the colonists to their fate ; and the hardships of colonial life made 
many desirous of abandoning the enterprise. But the far-reaching genius 
of Smith saw in the fertile soil and mild climate of Virginia the provision 
by Providence for a great people, and he set himself resolutely to the 
work of bringing into subjection the native tribes, and of making the Col- 
ony self-supporting. He rebuked the London Company for their threat 
to abandon the Colony, he defeated the efforts to abandon the settlement 
at the risk of his life, he forced the men to labor, and he taught them how 
to hold the Indians in subjedtion and to get from them needed provisions. 
In a word, he demonstrated the pracfticability of the enterprise. Years 
afterward, and when, through his exertions in a great measure, Virginia 
had been successfully planted, he picflured the miseries through which 
they had passed who planted it, and his entire devotion of himself to its 
interests, in these words: ' By that acquaintance I have with them, I call 
them my children, for they have been my wife, my hawks, hounds, my 
cards, my dice, and in totall my best content, as indifferent to my heart as 
my left hand to my right ; and notwithstanding all those miracles of dis- 
asters have crossed both them and me, yet were there not an Englishman 



4S THE GOVERNORS OP VIRGINIA. 

remaining, as God be thanked, notwithstanding the massacre, there are 
some thousands, I would yet begin againe with as small meanes as I did at 
first.' As his companions freely accorded to him the honor of being the 
real founder of Virginia, now that his work has developed into such a 
power for the advancement of mankind, the world should freely accord 
him the great honor which is his due." — Williain Wirt Henry. 

"The site is a very handsome one. The river is three miles broad; 
and on the opposite shore the country presents a fine range of bold and 
beautiful hills. Where is the busy, bustling crowd which landed here two 
hundred years ago? Where is Smith, that pink of gallantry, that flower 
of chivalry ? I fanc}' that I can see their first slow and cautious approach 
to the shore ; their keen and vigilant eyes piercing the forest in every 
diredlion, to dete(5l the lurking Indian, with his tomahawk, bow and 
arrow. Good Heavens ! what an enterprise ! how full of the most fearful 
perils ! and yet, how entirely profitless to the daring men who personally 
undertook and achieved it ! Through what a series of the most spirit- 
chilling hardships had they to toil ! how often did they cast their eyes to 
England in vain ! and with what delusive hopes, day after day, did the 
little famished crew strain their sight to catch the white sail of comfort 
and relief! But day after day the sun set and darkness covered the earth, 
but no sail of comfort or relief came. How often in the pangs of hunger, 
sickness, solitude, and disconsolation did they think of London, her shops, 
her markets, groaning under the weight of plenty ; her streets swarming 
with gilded coaches, bustling hacks, with crowds of lords, dukes, and com- 
mons ; with healthy, busy, contented faces of every description ; and 
among them none more healthy or more contented than those of their 
ungrateful and improvident directors ! " — William Wirt, on Jamestoivn. 

"Thus on the arrival of Captain Smith, the first founder of the 
Colony of Virginia,'" etc. — Thomas fefferson. Notes on the State of 
Virginia. 

"Parson Weems," of Virginia (who wrote a "Life of 
Washington," which, according to the distinguished Vir- 
ginia historian, John Esten Cooke, has "gone through more 
editions and been read by more people than the Lives of Mar- 
shall, Ramsay, Bancroft, and Irving put together"), says: 

"the souls of Columbus, Raleigh, and Smith looking 

down from heaven with joy beheld the consummation of all 
their labors and wishes." 

The beautiful story of the devotion of the Indian princess, 
Pocahontas, to the English Colony, deserves here more than 
a passing mention. She was really the guardian angel of 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 43 

those sad emigrants over whose destiny she often presided. 
Her rescue of Captain John Smith from a cruel death has 
been perpetuated by the historian, the poet, the painter, and 
the sculptor, and the thrilling pidlure of the Indian girl rush- 
ing between the vidlim and his fate, appealing to her impe- 
rial father to spare the fatal blow, will ever remain a part of 
the early history of this country. Pure and simple-hearted 
she often forgot her own danger in her desire to inform the 
colonists of impending trouble. She forsook the wild rites of 
her savage tribe, embraced the Christian religion and was 
baptized and received into the Church under the name of 
Rebecca. She was united in holy matrimony with one of 
the colonists, Mr. John Rolfe, a man of high charadter and of 
great usefulness in the plantation. It is worthy of note that 
he was the originator of the culture of Virginia's great 
staple, tobacco, and one of the most adtive in developing the 
various resources of the country. The marriage of Pocahon- 
tas with Rolfe brought peace with the Indians. Sir Thomas 
Dale, who was adting as Governor, carried her with her hus- 
band and child to England in 1616, where she was hand- 
somely entertained by the London Compan}^ and others, the 
Queen and the Court paying her marked attention. As she 
was about to return to Virginia, "The Lady Rebecca," as 
she was called in London, died on shipboard at Gravesend, 
after a brief illness, March 21, 1617. She left one son, 
Thomas Rolfe, who was educated in England and became 
afterwards a person of note in Virginia. He was the founder 
of a distinguished family of whom the celebrated John Ran- 
dolph was a descendant. 

" But as I traversed the ground over which Pocahontas had so often 
bounded and frolicked in the sprightly morning of her youth, I could not 
help recalling the principal features of her history, and heaving a sigh of 
mingled pity and veneration to her memory ! 

' ' Unfortunate princess ! She deserved a happier fate ! But I am con- 
soled * * * * that she sees her descendants among the most respedl- 
able families in Virginia ; and that they are not only superior to the false 
shame of disowning her as their ancestor, but that they pride themselves, 
and with reason, too, on the honor of their descent."— W7///a;;/ Wirt, iti 
''The nritis/i Spy." 



VIII. 

CAPTAIN GEORGE PERCY. 

President of the Council in Virginia. 
August, 1609, to May, 1610. 

President John Smith, enfeebled by an accident to his 
person from an explosion of powder, and requiring medical 
aid only to be obtained in England, returned thither towards 
the close of the year 1609, leaving three ships, seven boats, 
upwards of four hundred and ninety persons, twentj^-four 
pieces of ordnance, three hundred muskets, with other arms 
and ammunition, one hundred well-trained and expert soldiers, 
a competent supply of working tools, live stock, and ten weeks' 
provisions. Jamestown was strongly palisaded, and con- 
tained about sixty houses. Smith, for more than a year, had 
maintained his authority, and when forced to embark for 
England he delegated his office to Percy. But the colonists, 
no longer controlled b}- an acknowledged authority, abandoned 
themselves to improvident idleness. 

Nothing could have been more inauspicious for the Colony 
of Virginia than the departure of Captain Smith. The pro- 
visions having been wasted after he left, a dreadful famine 
ensued, and prevailed to such extremity that this period was 
ever afterwards distinguished by the name of ''the starving 
time.'" Of nearh' five hundred persons left in the Colony by 
the late President, sixty only remained at the expiration of 
six months. 

Captain George Percy passed through a trying experience. 
On the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates, May, 16 10, the colonists 
insisted upon sailing for Newfoundland and burning behind 
them the town in which they had been so wretched. Gates 
prevented this, but they started on their sad return, and 
" none dropped a tear, for none had enjoyed one day of happi- 



CAPTAIN GEORGE PERCY. 45 

ness." On the 8th of June, 1610, they fell down the stream 
with the tide, but next morning they met Lord De la Warr, 
with emigrants and supplies, and he turned the faces of the 
fugitives once more towards the deserted Jamestown. It was 
on the loth of June that the restoration of the Colony began. 

Under the second charter granted the London Company 
for Virginia, May 23, 1609, it was empowered to choose the 
Supreme Council in England, and under its instructions and 
regulations a Governor was provided, invested with absolute 
civil and military authority, with the title of " Governor and 
Captain- General of Virginia." The resident council was still 
retained. Thomas West, Lord De la Warr, was appointed 
First Governor and Captain-General for life, May 23, 1609, but 
as he did not reach the Colony until June 10, 16 10, Sir Thomas 
Gates was authorized to administer the affairs of the colony 
until the arrival of Lord De la Warr. When, therefore, Sir 
Thomas Gates arrived in Virginia, May 24, 1610, he superseded 
Captain George Percy, whose term of office had been such an 
eventful one. 

George Percy, eighth son of Henry, eighth Earl of North- 
umberland, was born September 4, 1580; served for a time in 
the Low Countries; sailed for Virginia in the first expedition, 
December, 1606; was President of the Colony during "the 
starving time," from August, 1609, to May, 16 10, and when 
Lord De la Warr returned to England in March, 161 1, in 
recognition of Percy's former services, he was appointed Gov- 
ernor until the arrival of Dale in May following. Percy left 
Virginia, April, 1612, went again to the Low Countries, where 
he distinguished himself as a soldier, was captain of a com- 
pany in 1627, and died unmarried in 1632. He wrote "A 
Trewe Relacyon," in defense of his administration in Virginia. 



IX. 



SIR THOMAS GATES. 
Lieutena7it-General 

and 
t 

Deputy-Governor. 

May, 1610, to June 10, 1610. 

Sir Thomas Gates was born at Colyford, in Colyton 
Parish, Devonshire. He was one of the first petitioners for 
royal license to colonize America, and was an incorporator of 
the first charter, April 10, 1606. When Lord De la Warr 
was created Governor and Captain-General for life, in May, 
1609, Sir Thomas Gates, with Newport and Sir George 
Somers, was authorized to administer the affairs of the Colony 
until the coming of L,ord De la Warr. He accordingly 
assumed command on his arrival in Ma}^ 1610, and prevented 
the burning of Jamestown by the desperate colonists. But 
having consulted with Sir George Somers, Captain Newport, 
and the Council of the former government, they determined 
to abandon the country. This was prevented by the provi- 
dential appearing of Lord De la Warr, who at once, June 
10, 1610, assumed the reins of government. Sir Thomas 
Gates left Virginia, July, 1610, but returned again in May, 
161 1. He remained nearly three years, and went back to 
England in April, 16 14. 



46 



X. 



LORD DE LA WARR. 

Governor 

and 

Captain- General. 

June lo, 1610, to March 28, 161 1. 

Sir Thomas West, third Lord De la Warr, the first 
resident Governor-in-Chief of the Colonj^ of Virginia, was 
born in 1579. He received this important appointment on ac- 
count of his virtues as well as in consideration of his rank, 
for he was descended from a long line of noble ancestry. He 
assumed control of the Colony June 10, 1610. Having pub- 
lished his commission, which invested him with the sole com- 
mand, he appointed a Council of six persons to assist him in 
the administration. An essential change now took place in 
the form of the ancient Virginia Constitution ; the original 
aristocracy was converted into a rule of one, over whose 
deliberations the people had no control. Securit)' returned to 
the Colony and prosperity appeared under the auspices of this 
intelligent and distinguished nobleman. But Lord De la 
Warr's health failing, he sailed March 28, 161 1, for the island 
of Nevis, for the benefit of the warm baths, leaving his Colony 
in the charge of Captain George Percy. His health improv- 
ing somewhat, he desired to return to Virginia, but was per- 
suaded to go to England. The settlement at this time con- 
sisted of about two hundred men, but the Governor's departure 
produced great despondency. Fortunately, Sir Thomas Dale, 
"an experienced soldier," had been dispatched from London 
with supplies for the Colony. He arrived in the Chesapeake, 



48 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

May, 1611, and assumed the government, which he soon after- 
wards administered upon the basis of martial law. 

In this year, 161 1, Samuel Argall, exploring the neighbor- 
ing coast to the north, at nine o'clock in the morning of the 
27th of July, cast anchor in a very great bay, with many 
affluents, and gave it the name of Delaware. 

"A short relation made by the Lord De la Warre, to the 
lyords and others of the Counsell of Virginia, touching his 
unexpedled return home, and afterwards delivered to the 
Generall Assembly of the said Company, at a court holden 
the twenty-five of June, 161 1, published by authority of the 
said Counsell," says: 

" In the next place, I am to give accompt in what estate I 
left the Collony for government in my absence. It may please 
your Lordships, therefore, to understand that upon my depart- 
ure thence, I made choise of Captaine George Pearcie (a gen- 
tleman of honour and resolution, and of no small experience 
in that place), to remaine Deputie-Governor untill the com- 
ming of the Marshall, Sir Thomas Dale, whose commission 
was likewise to be determined upon the arrivall of Sir Thomas 
Gates, according to the intent and order of your Lordships 
and the Councill here." 

The following, from the same, is an interesting allusion to 
the noble Potomac : 

"The last discover}', during my continuall sicknesse, was 
by Captaine Argall, who hath found a trade with Patomack 
(a king as great as Powhatan, who still remaines our enemie, 
though not able to doe us hurt). This is a goodly River, 
called Patomack, upon the borders whereof there are growne 
the goodliest Trees for Masts, that may be found else-where 
in the World ; Hempe better then English, growing wilde in 
abundance ; Mines of Antimonie and Leade. Without our 
Bay to the Northward is also found an excellent fishing Banke 
for Codde and Ling as good as can be eaten, and of a kinde 
that will keepe a whole yeare, in Shippe's hould, with little 
care, a try all whereof I have now brought over with me," etc., 
etc. 

During Lord De la Warr's stay in England at this time, 



LORD DE LA WARR. 49 

he was largely instrumental in procuring ' ' A Third Charter of 
King James I. to the Treasurer and Company for Virginia."* 
This charter not only confirmed all their former privileges, 
and prolonged their term of exemption from payment of duties 
on the commodities exported by them, but granted them more 
extensive property and more ample jurisdi(5lion. By this 
charter, all the islands lying within three hundred leagues of 
the coast were annexed to the Province of Virginia. Lord 
De la Warr set sail from England to return to Virginia in 
March, 1618, but unfortunately died (near the bay which 
bears his name) on the 7th of June following. 

* (Dated March 12, 1611-12 — Stith's Appendix, No. 3.) — See Hening's " Statutes a 
Large," I'irginia, Vol. I., pp. gS-iio. 



IV 



XI. 



CAPTAIN GEORGE PERCY. 

Dep2ity-Govcnior. 

March 28, 161 1, to Maj^ 19, 161 1. 

Captain Gicorge Percy was appointed by Lord De la 
Warr "to remain Deputie-Governor untill the comming of the 
Marshall, Sir Thomas Dale." This honor he assumed on 
March 28, 161 1, and held until the arrival of Dale, May, 
161 1. Again a period of great depression occurred in the 
colony, l)ut Dale, with his supplies and enthusiasm, stirred 
the embers of hope in the hearts of the desponding settlers. 
Percy left Virginia, April 22, 1612, and never returned. 



50 



XII. 



SIR THOMAS DALE. 

Hi^h Marshal 

and 

Actiiig (lovenior. 

May 19, 161 1, to August, 161 1. 

The Ivondon Company having sent Sir Thomas Dale 
with supplies for the relief of the Colony, he arrived in the 
Chesapeake duly in May, 161 1, and assumed charge of the 
government. The code which he adopted, and which had 
been sent to Virginia by the Treasurer of the London Com- 
pany, vSir Thomas Smith, was a severe one; but he sent let- 
ters to England which induced Gates to bring over six ships, 
with three hundred emigrants, and this was a happy move for 
the colonists, who rejoiced with joy unspeakable at the 
approach of this friendly fleet. Gates assumed command, 
and the Colony numbered seven hundred men. Dale now 
went up the river to found two new plantations, one of 
which was named in honor of Prince Henry. He carried 
with him the Rev. Alexander Whittaker and three hundred 
and fifty men. One of the new positions was called New 
Bermuda, or what is now known as Bermuda Hundred, and 
the other, five or six miles higher up on the James, on the 
opposite side of the river, was located on Farrar's Island. 
This last was called Henrico City. In each of these places a 
church was built, and Mr. Whittaker was placed in charge of 
them. These were the first establishments after James City. 
The elevation upon which Henrico City once stood, commands 
a most romantic view. Four beautiful river.s appear to lend 
their charms to the prospecfl, while in facfl it is only 



52 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

through the graceful windings of one that this illusion is 
produced. 

Sir Thomas Dale's name is thus associated with some of 
the most interesting events in the early life of the Colony, 
particularly with the foundation of the churches above men- 
tioned. 



XIII. 

SIR THOMAS GATES. 

Acting Governor. 
August, 1611, to March, 1613. 

The return of Gates to Virginia at this time with recruits 
and supplies, brought a revival of hope to the colonists, who 
from that hour began to advance in strength and happiness. 
The greatest change in their condition resulted from the 
incipient establishment of private property. To each man a 
few acres of ground were assigned for his orchard and gar- 
den, and henceforward the sancflity of private property was 
recognized. Agriculture enriched Virginia, and the stability 
of the Colony was no longer a matter of doubt. At this point 
we may exclaim with Michael Angelo, who inscribed at the 
base of one of his greatest works : ' ' No man hath knowledge 
how much blood this cost ! ' ' 

Through much tribulation, the settlement of America 
was assured, and on this remote frontier the Episcopal Church, 
coeval with the settlement of Jamestown, was established. 

Sir Thomas Gates left Virginia in charge of Dale in March, 
1613, and returned to England, where he employed himself in 
pressing forward the interests of the colonists. 



53 



XIV. 

SIR THOMAS DALE. 

Acting Governor. 
March, 1613, to April, 1616. 

When Sir Thomas Gates returned to England, in March, 
1 6 13, he left the Colony in the keeping of Sir Thomas Dale. 
In April of this year John Rolfe married Pocahontas, the 
daughter of King Powhatan. This union brought peace 
with the Indians, and is mentioned with approbation by 
every historian of Virginia. The earliest land laws, though 
imperfe(5l and unequal, gave now the cultivator the means of 
becoming a proprietor of the soil. These changes were made 
by Sir Thomas Dale, who has gained much commendation 
for his zeal and good judgment in such matters. He returned 
to England in 1616, and took with him Mr. Rolfe and his 
wife, Pocahontas. 

Sir Thomas Dale died in India in 1620 — "whose valor, 
having shined in the We.sterne, was set in the Easterne 
India." 



54 



XV. 

CAPTAIN GEORGE YEARDLEY. 

Deputy^ or Lieutenant-Governor. 
April, 1616, to May, 1617. 

Sir Thomas Dai,e, having remained five years in Amer- 
ica, now departed for his native country, and left George 
Yeardley, as Deputy-Governor, in charge of the administra- 
tion. He indulged the people in the cultivation of tobacco 
in preference to corn, which he compelled the natives to fur- 
nish by way of tribute. An instance of Yeardley 's method 
of ' ' raising ' ' corn is as follows : 

Having sent to the Chickahominies for the tribute corn, 
and receiving an insolent answer, Governor Yeardley pro- 
ceeded with one hundred men to their principal settlement, 
where he was met with contempt and scorn. Perceiving 
the Indians to be in a hostile and menacing posture, he ordered 
his men to fire on them, and twelve were killed on the spot. 
Twelve also were taken prisoners, two of whom were elders; 
hit they paid one hundred btcshels of com for their ransom^ and, 
as the p7dce of peace, loaded three English boats with the coveted 
cereal ! 

Yeardlej-'s government was successful, but he was, through 
Sir Thomas Smith's influence, superseded by Captain Samuel 
Argall, who arrived in Virginia, Maj^ 161 7, and assumed 
control of affairs. 

It is worthy of notice that in this year, 16 16, died Richard 
Hakluyt, historian and geographer, a man whose enthusiasm 
and courage stimulated the American enterprise and influ- 
enced the early settlement of Virginia in a pre-eminent degree. 



55 



XVI. 

CAPTAIN SAMUEL ARGALL. 

Deputy^ or Lieutenant-Governor. 
May, 1617, to April, 1619. 

Samuel Argall came to Virginia as early as 1609, to 
trade and to fish for sturgeon. This traffic was in violation 
of the laws, but as the wine and provisions which he brought 
were much in demand, his condudt was connived at, and he 
continued to make voyages for his own advantage and in the 
service of the Colony. In 1613 he arrived at the island of 
Mount Desert, off the coast of Maine, for the purpose of fish- 
ing, and finding a settlement of French, which was made two 
years before, he attacked it and took most of the settlers pris- 
oners. A Jesuit priest was killed in the engagement. This 
was the commencement of hostilities between the French and 
English colonists in America. Captain Argall soon after- 
wards sailed from Virginia to Acadie, and destroyed the 
French settlements of St. Croix and Port Royal. 

In 1 6 14 he went to England, and returned in 161 7, clothed 
with the authority of Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of 
Virginia. Being now beyond the reach of immediate control, 
he incurred the displeasure of the people and the proprietors 
by his tyrannical course. He was arrogant and greedy of 
gain, and by his arbitrary rule he "imported more hazard to 
the plantation than ever did any other thing that befel that 
adlion from the beginning." Before an account of Argall's 
despotic sway had reached Eondon, the authorities there had 
despatched Lord De la Warr, the Governor- General, to Vir- 
ginia with two hundred men and supplies for the Colony. 
Orders followed to send Argall to England, where he was 
"to answer everything that should be laid to his charge." 

56 



CAPTAIN SAMUEL ARC ALL. 57 

But the good Lord De la Warr was doomed not to reach Vir- 
ginia. He died on this voyage, and Argall was left to oppress 
the colonists and defraud the Company to his heart's content. 
The condition of Virginia became insupportable, for life itself 
was insecure against the passionate whims of this unscrupu- 
lous tyrant. The Colony languished, and no emigrants could 
be found for this unhappy settlement ; but the news which 
checked the spirit of adventure also roused the indignation of 
some of the London Company. Argall was displaced, and 
the mild and popular Yeardley eledled* Governor in his stead, 
with higher rank. During Argall's term of ofhce, martial 
law, which had been proclaimed and executed during the 
turbulence of former times, was, in a season of peace, 
made the common law of the land. By this law a gentleman 
was tried for contemptuous words that he had spoken of the 
Governor, was found guilty, and condemned ; but his sentence 
was respited, and he appealed to the Treasurer and Council, 
who reversed the judgment of the court-martial. This is the 
first instance of an appeal carried from an American colony 
to England. 

Argall's first exploit in Virginia had been the abdu(5lion 
of Pocahontas, in 1612, from the care of a chief who had been 
intrusted by Powhatan with the charge of his daughter, but 
who surrendered her for the bribe of a brass kettle. Taking 
her to Jamestown, Argall gave her into the keeping of the 
Governor and the church. When he left the Colony he con- 
tinued to lead an adventurous life. On September 6, 1625, 
he sailed from Plymouth as Admiral of twenty-four English 
and four Dutch ships, and during the cruise took seven ves- 
sels, valued at ^100,000; he is also said to have commanded' 
the flag-ship during the attack on Cadiz. Beyond this, little 
is known of him, save that he was married and left children ; 
was knighted by James I. in 1623, and died in 1639. His 
partnership in trade with the Earl of Warwick had protecfled 
him in his colonial difficulties. 

It was during Argall's reign in the Colony that the old 
king, Powhatan, its former ruler, passed from the green woods 
and river shores of Virginia, to the happy hunting grounds 



.-)8 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

of the Indian belief. " He was a prince of eminent sense and 
abilities, and deeply versed in all the savage arts of govern- 
ment and polic}-. Penetrating, crafty, insidious, it was as 
difficult to deceive him as to elude his own strategems. 
But he was cruel in his temper, and showed little regard to 
truth or integrit}'." 

Argall's character has been variously interpreted, but he 
was without question a man of talents and of unrivaled 
industry in any pursuit into which either his greed or his 
ambition led him. 



XVII. 

CAPTAIN NATHANIEL POWELL. 

President of the Council in Virginia. 
April 9, i6ig, to April 19, 1619. 

Sir George Yeardley having been knighted by King 
James I., November 22, 1618, the vessels lay waiting in the 
Thames to bear him to Virginia, but before the new Governor 
could reach his destination, Argall had decamped, bearing his 
booty with him. 

Captain John Smith says: " For to begin with the yeere 
of our Lord 16 19, there arriued a little Pinnace priuately from 
England about Easter for Captaine Argall, who taking order 
for his affairs, within foure or fine daies returned in her and 
left for his Deputy, Captaine Nathaniell Powell. On the 
eighteenth of Aprill, which was but ten or twelue daies after, 
arriued Sir George Yeardley," etc., etc. 

Captain Powell was one of the first Virginia planters. 
He came over in April, 1607, and took an adlive part for sev- 
eral years in colonial affairs, contributing a good deal by his 
personal efforts and his pen to the benefit of the Plantation. 
Unhappily, he and his wife were killed by the Indians, March 
22, 1622. Eleven others were also slain in this massacre at 
" Powle Brooke." 



59 



XVIII. 

vSIR GEORGE YEARDLEY. 

Governor 

and 

Captain- General. 

April 19, 161 9, to November 8, 1621. 

On the 19th of April, 1619, Sir George Yeardley entered 
upon the duties of his appointed office. The Colony was " in 
a poore estate" at this time, but from the moment of Yeard- 
ley's accession to power, the real life of Virginia began. 
Bringing with him "commissions and instructions from the 
Company for the better establishing of a Commonwealth," he 
declared "that those cruell lawes, by which the ancient plant- 
ers had soe longe been governed, were now abrogated, and 
that they were to be governed by those free lawes, which his 
Majestie's subjecftes lived under in Englande." 

' ' That the planters might have a hande in the governing 
of themselves, yt was graunted that a Generall Assemblie 
shoulde be helde yearly once, whereat were to be present the 
Govenor and Counsell, with two burgesses from each planta- 
tion, freely to be elecfled by the inhabitantes thereof, this 
assemblie to have power to make and ordaine whatsoever 
lawes and orders should by them be thought good and profit- 
able for their subsistence." In conformity with these instruc- 
tions, Sir George Yeardley " sente his summons all over the 
country, as well to invite those of the Counsell of Estate that 
were ab.sente, as also for the election of the burgesses," and 
on Friday, the 30th day of July, 16 19, the first ele(5live legis- 
lative body of this continent assembled at James City. As 
" a perpetual interest attaches to the first elecftive body repre- 
senting the people of Virginia, more than a year before the 

00 



S//^ GEORGE YEARDLEY. 61 

Mayflower ^ with the Pilgrims, left the harbor of Southamp- 
ton," its record is given here in full, from Senate Document 
(Extra), Colonial Records of \^irginia : 

Colonial Records of Virginia. 
STATE PAPERS. 

COLONIAL. Vol. I.— No. 45. 

[July 30, 16 19.]* 

A Reporte of the mangier of proceeding^ in 
the General assembly conventcd at James 
citty in Virginia, July jo, /6/g, consist- 
ing of the Governor, the Counsell of Es- 
tateX and two Burgesses eleBed out of 
cache Incorporation and PlaiTtation, and 
being dissolved the ^"' of August next 
ensuitig. 

Firft. Sir George Yeardlc}-, Knight Governo' & Captaine general of 
Virginia, having fente his funions all over the Country, as well to invite 
thofe of the Counfell of Eftate that were abfente as alfo for the election ol 
Burgefles, there were chofen and appeared 

E^or fames citty 

Captaine William Powell, 

Eufigne William Spense. 
Eor Charles citty 

Samuel Sharpe, 

Samuel Jordan. 
E'or the citty of Henricus 

Thomas Dowfe, 

John Polentine. 
Eor Kiccoivtan 

Captaine William Tucker, 

William Capp. 
Eor Martin Brandon — Capt. John Martin's Plantation 

M' Thomas Davis, 

M' Robert Stacy. 

*The caption is after the De Jarnette copy. Bancroft has " S. P. O." (State Paper 
OflRce.) "Am'a & W. Ind. Virg. : Indorsed, Mr. Povy out of Virginia. The Proceed- 
ings of the First Assembly of Virginia : July 1619." Sainsbury's Calendar o( Slate 
papers: Colonial, 1574-1660, has, "Endorsed by Mr. Carleton. Mr. Pory out of Vir- 
ginia."— p. 22. 

t Proceedings. Bancroft. {State. McDonald. 



62 THE GOVERNORS OF riRC/XEl. 

Eor Siiiyt/ir's hiDidred 

Captain Thomas Graves, 

M' Walter Shelley. 
Eor Maititi's huudred 

M' John Boys,' 

John Jackson. 
Eor ArgalFs guiffe'- 

M' Pawlett, 

M' Oourgaing.' 
Eor Ehnverdieu luiiidrcd 

Ensigne^ RofRnghani, 

M' Jefferson. 
Eor Captai)! La-ivne'' s plajitalioii 

Captain Christopher Lawne, 

Knsignc^ Washer. 
Eor Ca/>tai)ie Wardens plan ta/ ion 

Captaine Wardc, 

Lieutenant Gibbes. 

The nioft convenient place we could finde to sitt in was the Quire of 
the Churche Where Sir George Yeardley, the Governour, being fett 
downe in his accuflomed place, thofe of the Counfel of Ertate fate nexte 
him on both handes, excepte onely the Secretary then appointed 
Speaker, who fate right before him, John Twine, clerke' of the Genera' 
ailembly, being placed nexte the Speaker, and Thomas Pierfe, the Ser- 
geant, ftanding at the barre, to be ready for any fervice the Allembly 
Ihoulde comaund" him. But forasmuche as men's affaires doe little prof- 
per where God's fervice is negle6led, all the Burgefles tooke their places 
in the Quire till a prayer was faid by Mr. Bucke, the Minifter, that it 
would pleafe God to gviide and fandlifie all our proceedings' to his owne 
glory and the good of this Plantation. Prayer being ended, to the intente 
that as we^ had begun at God Almighty, fo we^ might proceed w"' awful 
and due refpe6le towards the Lieutenant, our nioft gratious and dread 
Soveraigne, all the Burgelles were intreatted to retyre themfelves into 
the body of the Churche, w'' being done, before they were fully admitted 
they were called in order and by name, and fo every man (none dagger- 
ing at it) took the oathe of Supremacy, and then entred" the Allembly. 
At Captaine Warde the Speaker tooke exception, as at one that without 
any Comillion or authority had seatted himfelfe either upon the Compa- 
nies, and then his Plantation would not be lawfvill, or on Captain Martin's 
lande, and fo'" he was but a limbe or member of him, and there could be 
but two Burgelles for all. So Captaine Warde was comaunded to abfente 

' Boyes, McDonald. -Ouilte, Bancroft. ^Gourgaiuy, McDonald and Bancroft. 
*' K.tisign, Bancroft. "'Clerk, McDonald. "Coniand, McDonald. ' I'roceedinges, Ban- 
croft, '■wee, McDonald, "entered, McDonald, '".soe, McDonald. 



SIR CEORCE VEARDLEV. 63 

hiinfelfe till such time as the Allcinl:)ly had agreed what was fitt for him 
to doe. After muchc debate, they refolved on this order following: 

An order concluded by the General adembly 
concerning Captaine Warde, July 30"', 
1619, at the opening of the faid Af- 
fembly. 

At the reading of the names ol the Burgeifes, Exception was taken 
againft Captaine Warde as having planted here in Virginia without any 
authority or comiffion from the Trefurer, Counfell and Company in Eng- 
lande. But confidering he had bene at so great chardge and paines to 
augmente this Colony, and had adventured his own perfon in the adlion, 
and fmce that time had brought home a good'- quantity of filhe, to relieve 
the Colony by way of trade, and above all, becaufe the Comiffion for 
authorifmg the General AlVembly admitteth of two BurgelTes out of every 
plantation w"'out reftrainte or exception. Upon all thefe conliderations, 
the AlVembly was contented to adniitt of him and his Lieutenant (as 
members of their body and BurgeHes) into their society. Provided, that 
the faid Captaine Warde, w"' all -expedition, that is to faye between this 
and the nexte general alTembly (all lawful impediments excepted) ihould 
procure from the Trefurer, '■■ Counfell and Company in England a comif- 
fion lawfully to eftablilli" and plant liimfelfe and his Company as the 
Chieffs'' of other Plantations have done. And in cafe he doe negledl this 
he is to ftande to the cenfure of the next general aflembly. To this Cap- 
taine Warde, in the prefence of us all, having given his confente and 
undertaken to perform the fame, was, together w"' his Lieutenant, by 
voices of the whole Alfembly firit admitted to take the oath of Suprem- 
acy', and then to make up their number and to litt amonglt them. 

This being done, the Govcrnour himselfe alledged that before we 
proceeded any further it behooved us to examine whither it were fitt, 
that Captaine Martin's Burgelles shoulde"' have any place in the AlVem- 
bly, forasmuche as he hath a claufe in his Patente w''' doth not oneh- 
exempte him from that equality and uniformity of lawes and orders 
^,.rn ^iie great charter faith are to extende'^ over the whole Colony, but 
alfo from diverfe fuch lawes as we muft be enforced''' to make in the Gen- 
eral AlVembly. That claufe is as followeth : Item. That it Ihall and may 
be lawfull to and for the faid Captain John Martin, his heyers, executours 
and alVignes to governe and comaunde all fuche'" person or perfons as at 
this time he Ihall carry over with him, or that Ihalbe'-' fente him hereaf- 
ter, free from any comaunde of the Colony, excepte it be in ayding and 
alliiHng the fame agaiull'-' any forren or domeltical enemy. 

" 30, Bancroft, '-goode, McDonald. >■' Treasurer, McDonald, n estalilishe, Mc- 
Donald, Bancroft. '^ Chiefe-s, McDonald, "■.should, Bancroft. ' • W', McDonaUl and 
Bancroft, '^extend, Bancroft, '"inforced, McDonald, -"such, McDonaUl. -'shall 
lie, McDonald, --ag"', McDonald. 



64 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

Upon the'-' ' motion of the Governour, difcufled the fame time in the 
aflembly, eufued this order following: 

An order of the General Ailembly touching 
a claufe in Captain'-'"' Martin's Patent at 
James Citty, July 30, 1619. 

After all the BurgeiVes had taken the oath of Supremacy and were 
admitted into the houfe, and all fett downe in their places, a Copie of 
Captain'-'' Martin's Patent-' was produced by the Govern" '■" out of a Claufe 
whereof it appeared that when the general'-' ailembly had made fome 
kinde of lawes requifite for the whole Colony, he and his Burgefles and 
people might deride the whole company and chufe whether they would 
obay'-^ the same or no.'* It was therefore ordered in Courte that the fore- 
faid two BurgeiVes ihould w"'drawe themfclves out of the alTembly till 
fuche time as Captaine Martin had made his perfonall appearance before 
them. At what time, if upon their motion, if he would be contente to 
quitte and give over that parte of his Patente, and contrary therunto 
woulde submitte himfelfe to the general forme of governemente as all 
others did, that then his Burgefles should be readmitted, otherwife they 
were utterly to be excluded as being fpies rather than'-' loyal BurgeiVes, 
becaufe they had offered themfelves to be affistant at the making of-'-' 
lawes w' '' both themfelves and thofe whom they reprefented might chufe 
whether they would obaye'"' or not. 

Then came there in a complaintc againlt Captain-' Martin, that hav- 
ing fente his Shallop to trade for corne into the baye, under the com- 
maunde of one Enfigue Harrifon, the faide Enfignc ihould aflfirme to one 
Thomas Davis, of Pafpaheighe,'''" Gent, (as the faid Thomas Davis depofed 
upon oathe,) that they had made a harde voiage, had they not niett w"' a 
Canoa coming out of a creekc where their iTiallop could not goe. For the 
Indians refuiing to fell their Corne, thofe of the Ihallop entered the Canoa 
w"' their arnies and tooke it by force, meafuring out the corne w"' a 
balkett they had into the Shallop and (as the faid Eniigne Harrifon faith) 
giving them fatisfaction in copper beadcs-" and other trucking IVuffe. 

Hitherto Mr. Davys upon his oath. 

Furthermore it was lignified from Opochancano to the Governour 
that thofe people had complained to him to procure them juftice.*' For 
w'*' confiderations and becaufe fuche^' outrages as this might breede dan- 

*The following passage is a side note on the margin of the McDonald and De Jarn- 
ette copies, but Bancroft includes it in the text :— The authority of Captaine -'•' Martin's 
Patent graunted by the Counfell & Company under their Comon :*" Seale, being of an 
higher condition -'i and of greatter ■'- force then any Acte of the General •'■' Aflembly. 

-^ this, McDonald and Bancroft. '-''' Captaine, McDonald. -•'' Patente, McDonald 
and Bancroft. "*'• Governour, McDonald and Bancroft. '-'Generall, McDonald and 
Bancroft, -"obey, McDonald; obaye, Bancroft. '-''Capt., McDonald. •'"Common, 
McDonald, -'i comi.ssion, McDonald, -'-greater, McDonald. -'^Generall. -'^then, 
McDonald, •'■•of the, McD. ■'"'obeye, McDonald; obaye, Bancroft. 3? captaine, Mc- 
Donald and Bancroft. ^h paspai^gjghg^ McDonald, Banc'ft. '"beads, McDonald, 
^"iustice, McDonald, "such, McDonald. 



SIR GEORGE YEARDLEY. 65 

ger and loll"-'- of life to others of the Colony w"'' fhould have leave to trade 
in the baye hereafter, and for prevention of the like violences againft the 
Indians in time to come, this order following was agreed on by the gen- 
eral allembly. 

A fecond order againft Captain Martin, at 
James citty, July 30, 1619. 

It was alfo ordered by the Aflembly the fame daye that in cafe Cap- 
taine Martin and the ging of his fhallop would'*^ not throughly anfwere 
an accufation of an outrage comitted againft a certaine Canoa of Indians 
in the baye, that then it was thought reafon (his Patent,^ notw"'ftanding 
the authority whereof, he had in that cafe abufed) he fhoulde*^ from 
henceforth take leave of the Governour*'^ as other men, and fhould putf' 
in fecurity, that his people fhall comitte no fucli'*'* outrage any more. 

Upon this a letter or warrant was drawen in the name of the whole 
alTembly to fumon Captaine Martin to appeare before them in forme fol- 
lowing : 

By the Governo"'^ and general aflembly of Virginia. 

Captaine Martine, we are to requeft"*" you vipon fight hereof, with all 
convenient fpeed to repaire hither to James citty to treatt and conferre 
w"' vis about fome matters of efpecial'' importance, W"'' concerns'''^ both 
us and the whole Colony and yourfelf. And of this we praye you not to 
faile. 

James citty, July 30, 1619. 

To our very loving friend, Captain John Martin, Efquire, Mafter of the 
ordinance. 

Thefe obftacles removed, the Speaker, who a long time had bene 
cxtreanie iickly, and therefore not able to pafle through long harangues, 
delivered in briefe to the whole aflembl)- the occafions of their meeting. 
Which'' done, he read unto them the comiiTion for eftablifhiug the Coun- 
fell of Eftate and the general'^ Aircmbh', wherein their duties were 
defcribed to the life. 

Having thus prepared them, he read over unto them the greate 
Charter, or comiflion of priviledges, orders and lawes, sent by Sir George 
Yeardley out of Englande.-'' Which'''' for the more eafe of the Commit- 
ties, having divided into fower books, he read the former two the fame 
forenoon for expeditious^' fake, a fecond time over, and fo they were 
referred to the perufall of twoe Comittics, w'"' did reciprocally confider of 
either, and accordingly brought in their opinions. But fome man may 

■"'■^lofTe, McDonald, '"could, McDonald, Bancroft. '^ Patente, McDonald and Ban- 
croft. ''.') should, Bancroft. ■"' Governor, McDonald. ••' put, McDonald, -i" suche, Mc- 
Donald and Bancroft. '''Governour, Bancroft, ^"request, McDowell, i"' especiall, 
McDonald. •'- concerne, McDonald and Bancroft. i^^W''', McDonald. ''''Gen", Mc- 
lionald. •'^ The substance of these will he found in the paper, "A briefe Declaration," 
itc. See po.st. — . •'>'' W'', McDonald. ''" expeditions, Bancroft. 



66 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

here objecte to what ende we lliould prefuuie to referre that to the exaiii- 
iuation of Comitties w'' the Counfell and Company iu England'"' had 
already refolved to be perfect, and did expecte nothing-' but our aflente 
thereunto?'^" To this we anfwere, that we did it not to the ende to cor- 
recte or controU anything therein contained, but onely in cafe we ihould 
finde ought not perfectly fquaring w''' the ftate of this Colony or any lawe 
w' '' did prelfe or binde too harde, that we might by waye of humble peti- 
tion, feeke to have it redreffed, efpecially becaufe this great Charter is to 
biude us and our heyers for ever. 

The names of the Comitties for peruling the 
first booke of the fower : 

I. Captain William Powell, 2. Eniigne Roliugham, 

3. Captaine Warde, 4. Captaine Tucker, 

5. Mr. Shelley, 6. Thomas Doufe, 

7. Samuel Jordan , S. Mr. Boys. 

The names of the Comitties for peruiing the 
fecond booke : 

I. Captaine Dawne,* 2. Captaine Graves, 

3. Enligne Spense, 4. Samuel Sharpe, 

5. William Cap, 6. Mr. Pawlett, 

7. Mr. Jefferfon, 8. Mr. Jackfon. 

Thefe Comitties thus appointed, we brake up the firft forenoon's 
aifembly. 

After dinner the Governo' and thofe that were not of the Comitties'^' 
fate a feconde time, while the faid Comitties'''' were employed in the 
perusall of thofe twoe bookes. And whereas the Speaker had propounded 
fower feverall objedts for the AlTembly to confider on : namely, firft, the 
great charter of orders, lawes and priviledges; Secondly, which of the 
inftructions given by the Coiinfel in England to my lo : la: warre,"^ Cap- 
tain Argall or Sir George Yeardley, might conveniently putt on the 
habite of lawes; Thirdly, what lawes might iiTne out of the private con- 
ceipte of any of the Burgelfes, or any other of the Colony; and laftly. 
what petitions were*^" fitt to be fente home for England. It pleafed the 
Governou' ''■* for expedition''^ fake to have the second objecte'"* of the fower 
to be examined & prepared by himfelfe and the Non-Comitties. Wherin 
after having fpcntc fome three howers'"' conference, the twoe Commit- 
ties**^ brought in their opinions concerning the twoe former bookes, (the 
fecond of which beginneth at thefe wordes of the Charter : And forafmuche 

68 j;i]giande, McDonald, "i' nothinge, McDouald. ''"thereunto, McDonald and 
Bancroft, "i Comittees, McDonald. "-Lord le Warre, McDonald, "-'we, McDonald. 
•■"' Governor, McDonald. '■' expedition.s, McDonald, also Bancroft. "'• obiecte, McDon- 
ald. '■•' houres, McDonald. "^ two Coniittees, McDonald. 

*I.,awne, McDonald, and Bancroft the list of Burgesses on p. 10, showing this to be 
proper. 



SI A' CEO AGE YEARDLEY. 67 

as our intente is to ertablilli one cquall and nuifonne kinde of government 
over all Virginia &c.,)'*" w'' the whole Allenibly, becaufc it was late, de- 
ferred to treatt •" of till the next morning. 

SATTrRDAV. July 31. 

The nexte daye, therefore, out of the opinions of the faid Comit- 
ties,"' it was agreed, thefe''' Petitions enfuing ihould be framed, to be pre- 
fented to the Treafurer, Counfel & Company in England. Upon the 
Comitties''-' perufall of the firft booke,'-' the General" AlVembly doe 
become moil: humble fuitours to their loi'" and to the reft of that lion'"'' 
Counfell and renowned Company, that albeit they have bene pleafed*'' to 
allotte unto the Governo' '^ to themfclves, together w"' the Counfell of 
Eftate here, and'** to the officers of Incorporations, certain lande'" portions 
oflandeto be layde out wi"'in the limites of the fame, yet that"" they 
woulde vouchfafe alfo,*" that"-' groundes as heretofore had bene granted by 
patent to the antient"' Planters by former Governours that had from the 
Company received comiffion"^ fo to doe, might not nowe after so muche 
labor and cofte, and fo many yeares habitation be taken from them. And 
to the ende that no man might doe or fufifer any wrong in this kinde, that 
they woulde favour us fo muche (if they meane to graunte this our peti- 
tion) as to fend us notice, what coniiflion or authority for graunting of 
landes they have given to cache"" particular Governour in times paste. 

The fecond petition of the (xeneral aftembly framed by the Comit- 
ties"" out of the fecond book is. That the Treafurer"' & Company in 
England would be pleafed w"' as muche convenient fpeed"" as may be to 
fende men hither to occupie their landes belonging to the fower Incorpor- 
ations, as well for their ownc^' behoofe and proffitt as for the maintenance 
of the Counfell'"' of Eftate, who are nowe'" to their extream hindrance 
often draw-en far from their private bufines and likewife that they will have 
a care to fende'- tenants to the minifters of the fower Incorporations to 
manure their gleab, to the intente that the allowance they have allotted 
them of 200 G.-'-' a yeare may the more eafily be raifed. 

The thirde Petition liuml)ly prcfented by this General Aftemblj' to the 
Treafurer, Counfell & Company is, that it may plainely be exprefted in 
the great Comiifion (as indeed it is not) that the antieut Planters of both 
fortes, viz., fuche as before Sir Thomas Dales' depart''^ were come hither 
upon their owne chardges,""' and fuche also as were brought hither upon 

''"The McDonald copy includes in ( ) all of this trom "the second of which " to 
" Charter," and another single ) after &c. The l)e Jarnette copy has one ) only after 
&c. Bancroft includes what is adopted in this text. '" McDonald has breath. " Cotnit- 
tees, McDonald, '-these, McDonald. '■' Comittees, ISlcDonald. ■'•book, McDonald. 
•'•Generall, McDonald. ■" pleas'd, McDonald. "■ Govern', McDonald ; Gov, Bancroft. 
""&, McDonald, "'large, McDonald. '"Bancroft omits "that." "' al.soe, Bancroft. 
"''■ McDonald has such and Bancroft suche after that. "^ ancient, McDonald. "^^ Comiss", 
Bancrofl. "•'■each, Bancroft. "'■ Comitte.ss, McDonald. "" Tresurer, McDonald. '*"speede, 
-McDonald, '"'own, Bancroft. '■"' Counsell, McDonald and Bancroft, '"now, McDon- 
ald, "'-'send, McDonald. "•'/"200, Bancroft. '""In the McDonald copy this was ju.st 
written departure, then " ure" crotTed out with a pen, and the word made de])artnieiit. 
Bancroft has departure. "■' Charges, McDonald. 



68 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

the Companie's colte, may have their fecond, third aud more divifious fuc- 
ceflively in as lardge and free manner as sxxy other Planters. Alfo that 
they wilbe pleafed to allowe to the male children, of them and of all others 
begotten in Virginia, being the only hope of a pofterity, a fingle Ihare a 
piece, and Ihares for their iffues or^^ for themfelves, becaiife that in a newe 
plantation it is not knowen whether man or woman be the more necelTary. 

Their fourth Petition is to befeech the Treafiirer, Connfell & Company 
that they would be pleafed to appoint a Sub-Tresurer^" here to collefte 
their rents, ^* to the ende that'"' the Inhabitants of this Colony be not tyed 
to an impoffibility of paying tlie fame yearly to the Treafurer in England, 
and that they would enjoine the faid Sub-Treafurer not precifely according 
to the letter of the Charter to exacte niony of us (whereof we have none at 
all, as we have no minte), but the true value of the rente in comodity. 

The fifte Petition is to befeeche the Treafurer, Counsell & Company 
that, towards the erecting of the Univerfity and Colledge, they will fende, 
when they fhall thinke"* it moft convenient, workmen of all fortes, fitt for 
that purpofe. 

The sixte and laste is, they wilbe'"' pleased to change the favage name 
of Kiccowtan, and to give that Incorporation a newe name. 

Thefe are the general Petitions drawen by the Comitties out of the two 
former bookes w'^'^ the whole general affembly in maner and forme 
above'"'- fett downe do moft humbly offer up and prefent'"^ to the honoura- 
ble conftruction of the Treafurer, Counfell and Company in England. 

Thefe petitions thus concluded on, thofe twoe Comitties broughte 
me'"^ a reporte what they had observed in the two latter bookes, w''' was 
nothing elfe but that the perfection of them was fuche as that'"'' they could 
finde nothing tlierein fvtbject to exception, onl}' the Governo"^^ '"" particular 
opinion to my felfe in private hathe l^ene as touching a clause in the thirde 
booke, that in thefe doubtfull times between us and the Indians, it would 
beehoove'"'' us not to make as'"^ lardge distances between Plantation and 
Plantation as ten miles, but for otu: more ftrength ande fecurity to drawe 
nearer together. 

At the fame time, there remaining no'"-' farther scrviple in the mindes 
of the Affembly touching the faid great Charter of lawes, orders and privi- 
ledges, the Speaker putt the fame to the queftion, and fo it had both the 
general affent aud tlie applaufe of the whole affembly, who, as they pro- 
feffed themfelves in tlie firft place moft fubmiffively thankfull to almighty 
god, therefore fo they commaunded the Speaker to returne (as nowe he 
doth) their due and humble thaukes to the Treasurer, Counfell and com- 
pany for fo many priviledges and favours as well in their owne names as in 
the names of the whole Colony whom they reprefented. 

^'f McDonald and Bancroft both have " wives as," instead of " iffues or," the former 
being evidently the proper words. "' Treasurer, McDonald, ""rentes, McDonald, Ban- 
croft. "" McDonald and Bancroft both omit that, i"" McDonald aud Bancroft omit it. 
'"'will be, McDonald. '"" sette, Bancroft, '"^preseute, McDonald and Bancroft. 
'"■•In, McDonald, Bancroft, i'"' McDonald and Bancroft omit that. '""Govn™, Mc- 
Donald; Gov", Bancroft. "'"Behoove, McDonald, Bancroft. '""So, McDonald, Ban- 
croft. '"" Noe, McDonald. 



S/A' GEORGE YEARDLEY. 69 

This being difpatched we fell once more"" debating of fuclic inrtruc- 
tions given bv the CounfcU in England to feveral'" Govemo" "'•' as might 
be converted into lawes, the lall whereof was the Eftablilhmcnt of the price 
of Tobacco, nameh', of the beft at 3d"'' and the fecond at i8d the pounde. 
At the reading of this the AlVenibly thought good to fende for Mr. Abra- 
ham Perfey, the Cape marchant, to publilhe this inftniction to him, and to 
demaunde"^ of him if he knewe of any impediment why it might not be 
admitted of? His anfwere"'' was that he had not as yet received any fuche 
order from the Adventurers of the '"^ in England. And notw"'ftanding 

he fawe tlie aiithority was good, yet was he unwilling to yield, till fuche 
time as die Governo' "' and AHembly had layd their commandment upon 
him, out of the authority' of the forefaid Inftructions as foUoweth : 

By the General Ailembly. 

We will and require you, Mr. Abraham Perfey, Cape Marchant, from 
this daye forwarde to take notice, that, according to an article in the 
Inftructions confirmed by the Treasurer, Counfell"* and Company in Eng- 
lande at a general quarter courte, both by"^ voices and under their hands'-'" 
and the Comon feall,'-' and given to Sir George Yeardley, knight, this 
prefent governour, Decemb.'" 3, 1618, that yoix are bounde to accepte of 
tlie Tobacco of the Colony, either for commodities or upon billes,'-' at three 
Ihillings the befte'" and the fecond forte at i8d the poi;nde, and this 
Ihalbe'" your sufficient difchardge. 

James citty out of the faid General Aflembly, July 31,'-" 1619. 
At the fame''^' the Inllractions convertible into lawes were referred to 
the confideration of the above named Committies,'-* viz., the general 
Inftructions to the firft Committie'-'^ and the particular Inftriictions to the 
fecond, to be returned by them into the ailembly on Munday morning. 

Sunday, Aug. i. 

Mr. Shelley, one of the Burgeftcs, deceased. 

MUNDAV,'-"' Aug. 2. 

Captain John Martin (according to the fumons fent him on Friday, '••' 
July 30,) made his perfonall appearance at the barre, whcnas the Speaker 
having firit read unto him the orders of the Aftemblj? that concerned him, 
he pleaded lardgely for himfelf '■'- to them both and indevoured'-'-' to anfwere 
fome other thinges'^'' that were objected againft'"' his Patentc. In fine, 

""McDonald and Bancroft insert to. '"Severall, McDonald. 'i-Govern'\ Mc- 
Donald ; Gov., Bancroft. "''The text, which follows the De Jarnette copy, is evidently 
wrong. The McDonald copy is blotted and illegible. Bancroft has 3.S. and Sainsbury's 
abstract the same, ""i Demand, McDonald. "^ Answ-er, McDonald, Bancroft. "'■Mc- 
Donald and Bancroft both fill the space with Magazin. "■ Govf, McDonald, Bancroft. 
"" Counsell, Treasurer, McDonald. "" McD. inserts the. '-"handes, McD. '-'scale, 
McD., Bft. '-'-Decs McDonald. '-:' bills, McDonald. '•■;■• beft, McDonald, '-^•ihallbe, 
McDonald. ''•'>' 31st, Bancroft. '-"McDonald and Bancroft infert time. '-"Commit- 
tees, McDonald. ''^"Committee, McDonald. ""'Monday, McDonald and Bancroft. 
'3' Friday, McDonald, '^^himfelfe, McDonald and Bancroft. '"•'& indeavoiired, Mc- 
Donald. '3^ things, McDonald, "'''ag"', McDonald. 



70 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

l)eing demanded out of the former order whether he would quitte tliat 
claufe of his Patent'"" w''' (quite otherwifc then Sir William Throckmor- 
ton's, Captain Chriftopher Dawnes''^'' and other men's patentes) exempteth 
himfelffe and his people from all fervices of the Colonie excepte onely in 
cafe of warre againft'^* a forren or domefticall euemie. His anfwere''^* was 
negative, that he would not infringe any parte'^" of his Patente. Where- 
upon it was refolvcd by the AlVemhly that his BurgefTes ihould have no 
admittance. 

To the fecond order his anfwere was affirmative, namely, that (his 
Patent'"*' notwithftanding) whensoever he Ihould fend into the baye to 
trade, he would'^- be contente to putt in feciirity to the Governour'-*-' for 
the good behavioiir of his people towardes'^^ the Indians. 

It was at the fame time further ordered by the Affembly that the 
Speaker, in their names, fhould (as he nowe doth''''') humbly demaunde'"*" 
of the Treafurer, Counfell'^' and Company an expofition of this one claufe 
in Captaine'^** Martin's Patente, namely, where it is faide That he is to 
enjoye'^'* his landes in as lardge'"" and ample manner, to all intentes and'-'' 
purpofes, as anv lord of anj' manours in England dothe holde his grounde 
otit of w' '' some have collected that he might b}' the fame graunte protecte 
men from paying their debts and from diverfe other dangers of la we. The 
leaft the Ailembly can alledge againft this claufe is, tliat it is obfcure, and 
that it is a thing impoffible for us here to knowe the Prerogatives of all the 
manoiys in Englande. The Affembly tlierefore humblj- befeeche''^- their 
loPi"* ^■'■' and the reit of that hon''''' houfe'*^ that in cafe they Ihall finde any 
thing in this or in any other parte of his graunte whereby that claufe 
towardes the conckifion of the great charter, (viz., that all grauntes afwell 
of the one sorte as of the other refpcctively, be made w"' equall favour, & 
graunts'"'' of like liberties & imunitics'='' as neer as maybe, to the ende that 
all complainte''' of partiality and indiffcrency' '^ may be avoided,) might'^'' 
in any forte be contradicted or the uniformity and equality"" of lawes 
and"" orders extending over the whole Colony might be impeached. That 
they would be pleafed to remove any fuch hindrance as may diverte out of 
the true courfe the free and"'-' publique current of Juftice. 

Upon the fame grounde and"'-' reason their 1 "i"* together with the reft 
of the Counfell"'^ and Company, are humbly l)cfought"'' by this general'''" 
ailembly that if in that other claufe w''' exempteth Captainc"'' Martin and 
his people from all ferv'ices of the Colony &c., they lliall finde any refiil- 
ance againft""" that equality and"'-' unifonnity of lawes and orders intended 

i3''' Patente, McDouald and Bancroft. '■'' Lawnes, Kancroft, fee p. lo. i;i'>ag'", Mc- 
Donald. 13" anfwer, Bancroft, n" part, McDonald and Bancroft. '" patente, McDon- 
ald, '^'-woulde, McDonald. 'i-'Gov, Bancroft, i^ ' toward.s, Bancroft, "'"'doe, Mc- 
Donald, ■■"■•deniande, McDonald. ''' Council, McDonald. '"*Capt., Bancroft, "-'en- 
joy, McDonald and Bancrolt. '•'" large, McDonald, Bancroft. '"'i &, McDonald. 
'•'■>'- beieecheth, McDonald and Bancroft. '■'■*Lop", McDonald; I^oi'", Bancroft, 
'^"•bourde, McDonald and Bancroft. '"■"' grants, McDonald. '°'' immunities, McDon- 
ald. '•'"' complaintes, McDonald, IJancroft. '■'''' unindifferency, McDonald, Bancroft. 
""''•' miKlite, McDonald, "''"equallity, McDonald. '"' &, McDonald. i'''-&, McDonald 
and Bancroft. "•■'&, McDonald, i''-' Councill, McDonald, '"^befoughte, McDonald. 
"■•■ theC.enerall, McDonald. "'' Captain, Bancroft. "•" ag"', McDonald. "''■' &, McDonald. 



SIR GEORGE YEARDLEY. 71 

nowc by them to be ellablilhcd over the whole Colony, that they would be 
pleafed to refomie it. 

In fine, wheras''" Captaine''' Martin, for thofe ten ihares allowed him 
for his perfonal''^- adventure and'" for his adventure of ^,"70 belides, doth 
claim 500 acres a ihare, that the Treafurer, Counfell and Company wovilde 
vouchfafe to give notice to the Governour''^ here, what kinde'"-' of Ihares 
they meante he Ihould have when they gave him his Patent.'"'' 

The premilles about Captaine Martin thus refolved, the Committics''' 
appointed to conlider what instructions are fitt to be converted into lawes, 
brought in their opinions, and'" firft of fonie of the general'" inftnictions. 

Here begin the lawes drawen out of the In- 
itructions given by his Mat''" Counfell 
of Virginia in England to my lo: la 
warre,'"" Captain Argall and Sir George 
Yeardley, knight. 

By this prefent Generall AlVembly be it enacted, that no'""' injur}- or 
oppreffion be wrought by the Euglilhe'^'-' againit'"-* the Indians whereby the 
prefent peace might be dillurbcd and antient quarrells might be revived. 
And farther""* be it ordained, that the Chicohomini are not to be excepted 
out of this lawe ; until either that suche'^-' order come out of Englandc, or 
that they doe provoke us by some newe injury. 

Against Idlenes, Gaming, durunkenes & exceiTe in apparell the Affem- 
bly hath enacted as followeth : 

First, in deteitation of Idlenes""' be it enacted, that if any men be 
founde to live as an idler or renagate, though a freedman, it shalbe"*' lawfuU 
for that Incorporation or Plantation to w '' he belongeth to appoint him a 
M' to ferve for wages, till he shewe apparant signes of amendment. 

Againft gaming at dice"^'^ & Cardes be it ordained by this prefent aifem- 
bly that the winner or winners Ihall lofe all his or their winninges and'^'' 
both winners and loofers Ihall forfaicte'™ ten lliillings a man, one ten 
fhillings whereof to go to the discoverer, and the reil to charitable & pious 
ufes in the Incorporation where the faulte'^' is comitted. 

Againlt drunkennefs be it alfo decreed that if any private perfon be 
found culpable thereof, for the firil time he is to be reprooved privately by 
the Minifter, the fecond time publiqucly, the thirde time to lye in boltes 12 
howers in the houfe of the Provost Marlhall & to paye his fee,'^- and if he 
(till continue in that vice, to undergo fuche fevere punilhment as the Gov- 
emo' '^■' and Counfell of Eftatc Ihall thinke fitt to be inflicted on him. But 

""whereas, McDonald. '''Captaine, McDonald; Capt., Bancroft, i'- perfouall, 
McDonald. ''«&, McDonald. '"^ Govern', McDonald, '"^kind, McDonald. '""Pat- 
ente, McDonald. '"' Comittee, McDonald. '""&, McDonald, '""generall, McDonald. 
"""1,0. La Warre, McDonald and Bancroft. '"' Noe, McDonald. "-'^ Knglifhe, Bancroft, 
""^ag"', McDonald, "■'further, McDonald, "■•"'fuch, McDonald. """ Idler.s, McDon- 
ald. "■■ fhall be, McDonald. "■" and, Bancroft. "■"As the McDonald copy has & in 
every inftance where the other two have and, the reader will bear this in mind and it 
will not be again repealed. '"" (orfaite, McDonald. '■" faults are, McDonald. '"'-^ fees, 
McDonald. '"-'Gover'", McDonald; Govern", Bancroft. 



72 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGIN El. 

if any officer offi;ude in this crime, the firft time he Ihall receive a reprooff 
from the Governour, the fecond time he Ihall openly be reprooved in the 
churche I:)y the minifter, and the third time he Ihall firlt be comitted and 
then degraded. Provided it be underftood that the Govern''-'^ hath al- 
wayes'"^ power to reftore him when he shall, in his difcretion thinke fitte. 

Againft excesse in"** apparell that every man be cefled in the churche 
for all publique contributions, if he be xinmarried according to his owne 
apparrell, if he be married, according to his OMne and his wives, or eithre 
of their apparell. 

As touching the iuftrudtion"'' of drawing fome of the better difpofedof 
the Indians to converfe w"' our people & to live and labour amongst'^*^ them, 
the Affembly who knowe"*^ well their difpolitions thinke it fitte to enjoine,'^"" 
leaft to counfell thofe of the Colony, neither utterly to rejedle them nor yet 
to drawe them to come in. But in cafe they will of themfelves come vol- 
untarily to places well peopled, there to doe fervice in killing of Deere, filh- 
ing, beatting of Corne and other workes, that then five or fix may be ad- 
mitted into every fvich place, and no more, and that w"' the confente'-'"' of 
the Governour. Provided that good'-"'^ guarde""' in the night be kept upon 
them, for generally (though fome amongft many may proove-""* good) they 
are a nioft trecherous people and quickly gone when they have done a vil- 
lany. And it were fitt'-'*^^ a houfewe builte for them to lodge in aparte*"" by 
themfelves, and lone inhabitants by no meaues'-"' to entertaine them. 

Be it enadled by this prefent aiTembly that for laying a surer founda- 
tion of the converfion of the Indians to Chriftian Religion, cache towne, 
citty, Borrough, and particular plantation do obtaine unto themfelves by 
juft means a certaine number of the natives' children to be educated by 
them in true religion and civile courfe of life — of w' '' children the moft 
towardly boyes in witt & graces of nature to be brought up by them in the 
firft elements of litterature, fo''"* to be fitted for the Colledge intended for 
them that from thence they may be fente''"^ to that worke of converfion. 

As touching the bvifines of planting corne this prefent Aflembly doth 
ordaine that yeare hy yeare all & ever^' houfcholder and houfeholders have 
in ftore for every fervant he or they Ihall keep, and alfo for his or their 
owne perfons, whether they have any Servants or no, one fpare barrell of 
corne, to be delivered out yearly, either upon fale or exchange as need fhall 
require. For the negledle'"" of w''' duty he ihalbe'-'" fubjec?te to the cenfure 
of the Govern'"-'- and Counfell of Eftate. Provided alwayes that the firft 
yeare of every newe man this lawe Ihall not be of '-'■^ force. 

About the plantation of Mulbery trees, be it enadled that every man as 
he is fcatted'-''' upon his divifion, doe for feven yeares together, every yeare 

is^Gover'", McDonald; Goveru', Bancroft. I'-'^alwaies, McDonald; always, Ban- 
croft, '"^of, McDonald, i"' inftructions, McDonald and Bancroft, i'"* among, Mc- 
Donald. i"n know, McDonald. -"" at inferted by Bancroft, -"i with confente, McDon- 
ald, -'"-goode, Bancroft, -"■'guard, McDonald. -"^ prove, McDonald. -"•'^ fitte, Ban- 
croft, ""''apart, McDonald. -"' means, Bancroft. -"" as, inierted by Bancroft. -"■' fetit, 
McDonald. 21" neglect, McDonald, -'i ihall be, McDonald, -i- Governour, McDonald 
and Bancroft. '-••'' in, McDonald. -" feated, McDonald. 



SIR GEORGE YEARDLEY. 73 

plante aud maiutaine in growte^'^ fix^'* Mulberry trees at the leaft,'" and 
as many more as he iTiall thinke conveniente and as his virtue"* & Industry' 
ihall move him to plante, and that all fuche perfons as fhall negledle the 
3'early planting and maintaining of that fmall proportion fhalbe'" fubje<5le 
to the cenfure of the Governour & the Couufell of Eftate. 

Be it farther"'''" ena<5led as concerning Silke-flaxe, that thofe men that 
are upon their divifion or fetled'-^' habitation doe this next"-^ yeare plante 
& dresse loo plantes, w'''' being founde a comedity,-''^ may farther be in- 
creafed. And whosoever do faill in the performance of this Ihalbe"'* fubjedl 
to this punifhment of the Governour'^''* & Counsell of Eftate. 

For hempe also both Engliflie & Indian, and for Engliflie^^'^ flax & 
Annifceds, we do'" require and enjoine all houfeholders of this Colony that 
have any of those seeds--** to make tryal thereofe the nexte feason. 

Moreover be it enadted by this present Aflembly, that every houfe- 
holder doe yearly plante and maintaine ten vines untill they have attained 
to the art and experience of dressing a Vineyard either by their owne in- 
duftry or by the Instruction of fome Vigneron. And that upon what pen- 
alty foever the Governo' ^-' and Counfell of Eftate fhall thinke fitt to impofe 
upon the negledlers of this adle. 

Be it alfo enadted that all neccftary tradefmen, or fo--^" many as need 
Ihall require, suche**' as are come over fince the departure of Sir Thomas 
Dale, or that Ihall hereafter come, ftiall worke at their trades for any other 
man, each^^'' one being payde according to the quality^^^ of his trade and 
worke, to be eftimated, if he Ihall not be contented, by the Governo'' and 
officers of the place where he workcth. 

Be it further ordained by this General Aflembly, and we doe by 
thefe prefents enadte, that all contradtes'-^'* made in England between the 
owners of lande and their Tenants and Servantes w'^'' they fhall fende'^* 
hither, may be caufed to be duely-^** performed, and that the offenders be 
punilhed as the Governour'-^'' and Counfell of Eftate Ihall thinke just and 
convenient. 

Be it eftablilhed alfo by this prefent Aflembly that no crafty or advan- 
tagious means be fiiffered to be putt in pradtife for the inticing awaye the 
Tenants or'^** Servants of any particular plantation from the place where 
they are seatted. And that it flialbe^^^ the duty of the Governo''^'**' & 
Counfell of Eftate moft feverely to puniflie both the feducers and the 
feduced, and to returne'^"*' thefe latter into their former places. 

Be it further enadted that the orders for the Magazin^'*' lately made be 
exadlly kepte, and that the Magazin be preferved from wrong'''^ and 

=»* Growth, McDonald. 2'" fixe, McDonald and Bancroft. 2" leafte, McDonald and 
Bancroft. 2>«vertue, McDonald, ^lo fhall be, McDonald. =20 further, McDonald. ^^ fet- 
tled, McDonald. 222 next, McDonald, ^^a comodity, McDonald and Bancroft. '»< fhall 
he, McDonald. 225 Oover""', McDonald, ^^n 5;j,giifh^ Bancroft. =27 ^ge doe, McDonald. 
»5*'feedes, Bancroft. 229 Governour, McDonald and Bancroft. 23" foe, McDonald. 
'•'31 fuch, Bancroft. 232 eache, McDonald and Bancroft. 233 quautyp Bancroft. -34 con- 
tracts, McDonald. 23.5 fe„(j, McDonald. -3.1 (jujy McDonald. "7 Govern^ McDonald 
23« &_ McDonald. 23« fhall be, McDonald, '-iij Go'ver"', McDonald ; Governour, Bancroft.' 
2*' return, Bancroft. 242 ,nagazine. McDonald. 243 ^^onge, McDonald. 

VI 



74 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

finirter pradlifes, and that according to the orders of coiirte in Englande'''^ 
all Tobacco and faffafras be brought-'** by the Planters to the Cape mar- 
chant till fiiche time as all the goods^"*^ nowe or heretofore fent for the 
Magazin be taken off their handes at the prices agreed on. That by this 
meanes'^'' the fome"'** going for Englande"*^ with'"^' one hande, the price 
thereof may be uphelde'-*' the better. And to the ende that all the whole 
Colony may take notice of the laft order of Courte made in Englande and 
all thofe whom it concerneth may know''*^ howe'-^'' to obferve it, we^*" holde 
it fitt to publifhe it here for a lawe^*^ among the reft of our lawes. The 
•y,^ch256 order is as followeth : 

Upon the 26^*^ of October, 1618, it was ordered that the Magazin''*^ 
fhould continue during'*' the terme formerly prefixed, and that certaine-*'' 
abufes now complained of fhould be reformed, and that for preventing of 
all Impofitions fave the allowance of 25 in the hundred profifitt, the 
Governo'''^' fhall have an invoice as well as the Cape Marchant, that if any 
abiise in the fale of the^*** goods be offered, wee,-*'^ upon Intelligence and 
due examination thereof, iTiall fee it correctede. And for the incourage- 
ment"^* of particular hundreds, as Smythe's hundred, Martin's hundred, 
Lawnes' hundred, and the like, it is agreed that what comodities are 
reaped upon anie of thefe GeneraF** Colonies, it flialbe lawefall for them 
to returne the fame to their own adventurers. Provided that the fame'^^* 
comodity be of their owne growing, w"' out trading w"' any other, in one 
entyre lumpe and not difperfed, and that at the determination of the jointe 
ftocke, the goods then remaining in the Magazin^*'' Ihalbe'^*^ bought by the 
faid particular Colonies before any other goods w''' Ihall be fente by pri- 
vate men. And it was moreover ordered that if the lady la warre, the 
Lady Dale, Captain Bargrave and the reft, would unite themfelves into a 
fettled^**' Colony they might be capable of the same priviledges that are 
graunted to any of the forefaid hundreds. Hitherto the order. 

AlP™ the general Aflembly by voices concluded not only the accept- 
ance and obfervation of this order, but of the Inftruction alfo to Sir George 
Yeardley next preceding the fame. Provided firft, that the Cape Mar- 
chant do"' accepte of the Tobacco of all and everie the Planters here in 
Virginia, either for Goods or upon billes of Exchange at three fhillings 
the pounde the befte, and i8d the fecond sorte. Provided alfo that the 
billes be only payde in Englande. Provided, in the third place, that if 
any other befides the Magazin^''-* have at any time any neceftary comodity 
w'^'' the Magazine doth wante, it ftiall and may be lawfull for any of the 

244 England, McDonald, ^^s Sasfafras brought, McDonald ; to be brought, Bancroft. 
246 goodes, Bancroft. 247 means, Bancroft. 24s fame, McDonald and Bancroft. 249 Eng- 
land, McDonald. 260 jnto, McDonald and Bancroft, s.'ii upheld, Bancroft. "•'^2 know, 
McDonald. -''^ how, McDonald. 254 -jvee, McDonald, "^^law, McDonald, 'se^^ich, 
McDonald. ^67 26th, McDonald and Bancroft. '-5" Magazine, McDonald. 259 (jm-jugg^ 
McDonald, ^fio certain, Bancroft. -'^^ Governour, McDonald and Bancroft. ^62 the 
omitted by McDonald. 2«3 ^gg McDonald, Bancroft. 264eucouragement, McDonald. 
2 66 feverall, McDonald ; feveral, Bancroft ; this word evidently the proper one. -66 faid, 
McDonald, Bancroft. ^67 magazine, McDonald, ^es fhall be, McDonald. ^69 fetled, 
Bancroft. 270 ^q^^ BaQ(.i-oft. 271 (joe, McDonald. 272 magazine, McDonald. 



S//? GEORGE YEARDLEY. 75 

Colony to buye^'' the faid necefiary coniodity of the faid party, but upon 
the termes of the Magazin- "^ viz : allowing no more gaine then 25 in the 
hundred, and that with the leave of the Govemour. Provided, laftely,'*''* 
that it may be lawfull-'"'' for the Govern'"''" to give leave to any Mariner, 
or any other perfon, that Ihall have any fuche ueceiTary comodity wanting 
to the Magazin'-''^ to carrie home for England so muche''" Tobacco or other 
naturall comodities of the Country^**** as his Customers Ihall pay him for 
the faid necefiary com.odity or comodities. And to the ende we may not 
only persuade and incite men, but inforce them alfo thoroughly and 
loyally to aire their Tobacco before they bring it to the Magazine,*'^' be it 
enacted, and by these presents we doe enacte, that if upon the Judgement 
of power sufficient even of any incorporation where the Magazine'^^'- shall 
refide, (having first taken their oaths to give triie fentence, twoe wiiereof 
to be chofen by the Cape Marchant and twoe by the Incorporation,) any 
Tobacco whatfoever Ihall not proove'^**'' vendible at the fecond price, that 
it fhall there imediately be burnt before the owner's face. Hitherto fuche 
lawes as were drawen out of the Instructions. 

Tuesday, Aug. 3,^*^'i 1619. 

This morning a thirde'**^ forte of lawes (fuche as might proceed out of 
every man's private conceipt^'*") were read and referred by halves to the 
fame comitties'-'^' w''' were from the beginning. 

This done, Captaine'-'^ William Powell prefented to the AfTembly a 
petition to have juftice againft a lewde'^^' and trecherous servante of his 
who by falfe accufation given up in writing to the Govemo"'^^" fought not 
onely to gett-" him depofed from his government of James citty and 
utterly (according to the Proclamation) to be degraded from the place and 
title of a Captaine, but to take his life from him also. And fo out of the 
faid Petition fprang this order following : 

Captaine William Powell prefented a Petition to the generall'-'*'-' Aflfem- 
bly againft^^^ one Thomas Garnett, a servant of his, not onely for extreame 
neglect of his bufmefi" to the great lofT^^^ and prejudice of the faid Captaine, 
and for openly and impudently abufing his house, in light both of Mafter 
and Miftrefie, through wantonnes'-'^ w"' a woman fervant of theirs, a 
widdowe, but alfo for falsely accufing him to the Governo'^''^ both of 
Drunkenes &'■'" Thefte, and befides for bringing all-''* his fellow fervants 
to teftifie*'' on his side, wherein they juftly failled''°° him. It was thought 

'■^'^ Buj', McDonald, -"i magazine, McDonald, -'^lastly, McDonald, -"''lawful, 
McDonald. '"" Governour, McDonald and Bancroft. "^'~As this word is fpelt by Mc- 
Donald in every inftauce with the final e this note will not be repeated. -'" much, Mc- 
Donald, ^""countrey, McDonald. -"' Magazin, Bancroft, -"-do. do. ^^'^ prove, Ban- 
croft. ^"■' 3rd, Bancroft. 2**'' third, Bancroft. ^'*'' conceipte, McDonald and Bancroft. 
'"*' comitties, Bancroft. ^MHc^pt^ Bancroft, -""lewd, McDonald. '•''"' Governour, Mc- 
Donald and Bancroft, -'"get, McDonald. 2"- General, McDonald. 2»3 ag»i^ McDon- 
ald. -S'l loffe, McDonald and Bancroft. '■'"•'■' wantonnes, McDonald ; wantonnefs, Ban- 
croft. ^»'' Governour, McDonald and Bancroft. '■"*' McDonald omits the & ; Bancroft, 
nor and. ^un McDonald omits the all. '^"^ certifie, Bancroft. ^"" failed, McDonald, 
Bancroft. 



76 THE COVERXORS OF VIRGINIA. 

fitt by the general aflembly (the Governour himfelfe^"' giving fentence), 
that he fliould ftand"'''^ fower dayes with his eares nay led to the Pillory, 
viz: Wednesday, Aug. 4"', and fo likewife Thurfday, fryday and Sattur- 
(jj^y303 next following, and every of thofe fower dayes Ihould be publiquely 
whipped. Now, as touching the negledle of his worke, what fatisfadlion 
ought to be made to his M' for that is referred to the Governour and 
CounfellofEftate. 

The fame morning the lawes above written, drawen out of the inftruc- 
tions, were read, and one by one thoroughly examined, and then paffed 
once again^"^ the generaP"'' confente of the whole Ailembly. 

This afternoon the committics brought in a reporte, what tliey had 
done as concerning the third forte of lawes, the difcufling whereof fpentc 
the refidue of that daye. Excepte onely the confideration of a petition of 
M'' John Rolfes againlte Captaine John Martine-'"* for writing a letter to 
him wherein (as M' Rolfe alledgeth) he taxeth him both unfeemly^"' and 
amilTe of certaine thinges""* wherein he was never faulty, and befides, caft- 
eth fome afperfion upon the prefent goverment, w"^*" is the moft temperate 
and jufte^'" that ever was in this country', too milde, indeed, for many of^'" 
this Colony, whom unwoonted^" liberty hath made infolente and not to 
knowe'"- themfelves. This Petition of M' Rolfes' was thought fitt to be 
referred to the Counfell of State. 

WedEnsday, Aug. 4"'. 

This daye (by reafon of extream heat, both parte and likely to eufue, 
and by that meanes of the alteration of the healthes of diverfe of the gen- 
eral Artembly) the Governour, who^'^ himfelfe alfo^'** was not well, refolved 
fhould be the laft of this firft feffion ; fo in the morning the Speaker (as he 
was required by the Aflembly) redd over all the lawes and orders that had 
formerly palfed the houfe, to give the fame yett one reviewed" more, and 
to fee whether there were any thing to be amended or that might be ex- 
cepted againfte. This being done, the third forte of lawes w'^'' I am now 
coming^"' to fette downe, were read over throughly''"' difcufled, w'='', 
together w"* the former, did now paife the lafte and finall confente of the 
GeneraP'* Aflembly. 

A third forte of lawes, fuche as may^'* irtue out of 
every man's private^*"" conceipte. 

It rtialbe free for every man to trade w'*" the Indians, fervants onely 
excepted, upon paine of whipping, unlefs the M"^ wilP'^' redeeme it off w"" 
the payment of an Angell, one-fourth parte whereofe to go^'^' to tlie Provoft 

301 Himfelf, McDonald. 3"" ftande, McDonald, Bancroft, soa Saturday, Bancroft. 
3»4 againe, McDonald, Bancroft, '"^generall, McDonald, Bancroft, s"' Martin, Mc- 
Donald. 3"' unfeemingly, Bancroft. 308 things, McDonald, Bancroft, '""juft, McDon- 
ald. 3'" in, McDonald, "'unwonted, McDonald. ^'^ know, McDonald. ^'^ who, 
omitted by McDonald. ^14 ^Jjq, inferted by McDonald, ^ib j-gview, McDonald, siscom- 
inge, McDonald, ^''thoroughly, McDonald, ^legenerall, McDonald. ^lOmayg^ Ban- 
croft, ''"'private McDonald, Bancroft. ^21 ^jjl, omitted by McDonald. ^22 goe, Mc- 
Donald. 



S//? GEORGE YEARDLEY. 77 

Martliall, one fourth parte to the clifcovercr, and the other moyty to the 
publique ufes of the Incorporation/'-'" 

That no man doe"*'-'^ fell or give any of the greatter howes to the 
Indians, or any Engliihe dog of quality, as a niaftive,-''^" greyhound, blood- 
hounde, lande or water fpaniel, or any other dog or bitche whatfoever, of 
the Englilhe race, upon paine of forfaiting s'* ^'•■' sterling to the publique 
ufes of the Incorporation where he dwelleth. 

That no man do fell or give any Indians any piece, Ihott or poulder, or 
any other annes, offenfive or defenfive, upon paine of being held a Tray- 
tour to the Colony, and of being hanged as foon as the facte^*^ is proved, 
w"'out all redemption.''-'^ 

That no man may go above twenty miles from his dwelling-place, nor 
upon any voiage whatfoever Ihalbe abfent from thence for the fpace of 
feven dayes together w"'out firft having made the Governo'' ■'^'* or comaun- 
der of the fame place acquainted therew"',-'"' upon paine^^^ of paying 
twenty ihillinges"^^ to the publique ufes of the fame Incorporation where 
the party delinquent dwelleth. 

That noe man Ihall purpofely goe to any Indian townes, habitations or 
places of refort^^"* w"'out leave from the Governo'^ '^'^'■' or comaunder^^" of 
that place where he liveth, upon paine of paying 40" to publique ufes as 
aforefaid. 

That no man living in this Colony, but Ihall between this and the firft 
of January' next enfuing come or fende to the Secretary of Eftate ^^'' to 
enter his own and all his fervants' names, and for what temie or upon 
what conditions they are to ferve, upon penalty of paying 40" to the faid 
Secretary of Eftate. ^^** Alfo, whatfoever M'^" or people doe^^^ come over to 
this plantation that within^'"* one month of their arrivall (notice being firft 
given them of this very lawe) they ihall likewife reforte to the Secretary of 
Eftate'^' and Ihall certifie him upon what tennes or conditions they be 
come hither, to the ende that he may recorde their grauntes and comif- 
fions, and for how long time and upon what conditions^'*''' their fervants (in 
cafe they have any) are to ferve them, and that upon paine of the pen- 
alty nexte above mentioned. 

All Minifters in the Colony Ihall once a year, namely, in the moneth 
of Marche, bringe to the Secretary of Eftate a true account of all Chriften- 
ings, burials and marriages, i:pon paine, if the}' faill, to be ceufured for 
their negligence by the Governo' '^^'^ and CounfelP'*'* of Eftate ; likewife, 
where there h(t no minifters, that the comanders of the place doe fupply 
the fame duty. 

^'•'^ 'Where he dwelleth, added in McDonald copy. •''-■' do, McDonald, Bancroft. 
3-"Knglifh, McDonald. ^'-* niafliffe, McDonald. ^^'5'', McDonald; ^5, Bancroft. 
''•"' fact, McDonald. ^'-"In the McDonald copy this and the paragraph next preceding 
are transposed. ■*■"' Covernour, McDonald, Bancroft. -'3' therewith, McDonald, Ban- 
croft. ^^'^ penalty, McDonald. 333 (]iii]i,]gs gam-roft. 3^' reforte, McDonald, Bancroft. 
■"•'■ Cover'", McDonald; Governour, Bancroft. ^^" comander, McDonald; comand"^, 
Bancroft. "'State, McDonald. asHytatg^ McDonald. ^39 do., Bancroft. 340 ^thjn^ 
McDonald. 3^' State, McDonald. 3''- In the McDonald copy, from the word condi- 
tions, in the third line above, to this point are omitted. ^'^ Governour, McDonald, 
Bancroft. 344Councill, McDonald. 



78 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

No mail, \v"'oiit leave of the Governo', lliall kill anj- Neatt cattle what- 
foever, young or olde, efpecially kinc, Heyfurs or cow-calves, and fliallbe^'** 
carefuU to preferve their fteeres^'*^ and oxen, and to bring tlieni to the 
plough and fuch profitable ufes, and \v"'out having obtained leave as afore- 
faid, Ihall not kill them, vipon penalty of forfaiting the value of the beaft fo 
killed. 

Whofoever fliall take any of his neighbours' boates, oares, or cauoas 
w"'out leave from the owner fhalbe held^^* and efteemed as a felon and fo 
proceeded againfle \^^ tho^^'' hee that thall take away by violence or ftelth 
any canoas or other thinges from the Indians lliall make valuable reftitu- 
tion to the faid Indians, and Ihall forfai6l, if he be a freeholder, five pound; 
if a fervant, 40% or endure a whipping; and anything under the value of 
j^J 351 fhall be accounted Petty larceny. 

All minifters Ihall duely read divine fervice, and exercise their min- 
ifterial fundlion according to the Ecclefiaftical lawes and orders of the 
churche^^'^ of Englande, and every Sunday in the afternoon^^^ fhall Cate- 
chize fuche as are not yet ripe to come to the Com.''^* And whofoever of 
them Ihalbe^^^ found negligent or faulty in this kinde fhalbe fubjedt to the 
cenfure of the Govern"^ and Counfell of Eftate. 

The Minifters and Churchwardens Ihall feeke to prefente^"*^ all ungodly 
diforders, the comitters wherofe^" if, upon goode^^*' admonitions and mild 
reprooff,^^'* they will not forbeare the faid fkandalous offenfes.^"" as fufpic- 
ions of whoredomes,^'*' diflioneft company keeping with weomen and 
fuche^®^ like, they are to be prefented and puniflied accordingly. 

If any perfon after two warnings, doe^^^ not amende^^'* his or her life in 
point^"^ of evident fufpicion of Incontincy^^^ or of the comilTion^^'' of any 
other enormous finnes,^''* that then he or Ihee be prefented by the Church- 
wardens and fufpended for a time from tlie churche by the minifter. In 
w*^*" Interim if the fame perfon do''*^ not amende and humbly fubmit^^" him 
or herfelfe to the churche, he is then fully to be excomunicate and foon 
after a writt or warrant to be fent^'" from the Govern'^''^ for the apprehend- 
ing of his perfon ande feizing on^'' all his goods. Provided alwayes, that 
aU the minifters doe meet^''^ once a quarter, namely, at the feaft of S 
Michael the Arkangell, of the nativity of our faviour, of the Annuntiation 
of the blelTcd Virgine, and aboiit midfomer, at^'° James citty or any other 
place where the Governo'"'"' Ihall refide, to determine whom it is fitt to 
excomunicate, and that they firft prefente their opinion to the Governo'' ^'^ 
ere they proceed to the acte of excomunication. 

^■•^ Shall be, McDonald, Bancroft. ^^'> steers, McDonald. 34s helde, McDonald, Ban- 
croft. 349 againft, McDonald, Bancroft. 250 alfo, McDonald, Bancroft. ^^' 13 ob., Mc- 
Donald. ^''-Church, McDonald. ^^^ afternoone, McDonald. 3'''' comunion, McDon- 
ald. 3S5 fijai] ijg_ McDonald. ^^'^ prevente, McDonald. 3^" whereof, McDonald, Ban- 
croft. 3 5 •* good, McDonald, Bancroft, soa j.eproofe, McDonald. 2"" offences, McDon- 
ald. 3'' whoredoms, McDonald. 3"'- fuch, McDonald, ^''-'do., Bancroft, ^''-i amend, 
Bancroft, ^"^pointe, McDonald. ^'"^ Incontinency, McDonald, Bancroft, ^i*' commif- 
fion, McDonald. ■""' fuines, Bancroft, ^sa doe, McDonald. •'"" fubmitt, McDonald, 
Bancroft. ^'^ fente, McDonald, Bancroft. ^''^ Governour, Bancroft. '"'^ McDonald 
omits on. ^'^ meete, McDonald. ^'^ att., McDonald. 2"" Gover"', McDonald ; Govern- 
our, Bancroft. 3''' Governour, McDonald, Bancroft. 



S//^ GEORGE YEARDLEY. 79 

For reformation of fwearing, every freeman and M'' of a family after 
thrife admonition Ihall give 5s or the value upon prcfent^'"* demaunde, to 
the ufe of the church where he dwelleth ; and every fervant after the like 
admonition, excepte his M'' difchardge^"' the fine, Ihalbe fubjedl to whip- 
ping. Provided, that the payment of the fine notw"'ftanding, the faid fer- 
vant fhall acknowledge his faulte publiquely in the Churche. 

No man whatfoever, coming by water from above, as from Henrico, 
Charles citty, or any place from the weftwarde of James citty, and being 
bound for Kiccowtan,^*" or any otlier parte on this fide,^*" the fame fhall 
prefume to pafs by, either by day or by night, w*''out touching firfte here 
at James citty to knowe'**'- whether the Governo' "*^ will comande him 
any fervice. And the like fhall they performe that come from Kicawtan^** 
ward, or from any place between this and that, to go vipwarde, upon paine 
of forfaiting ten pound fterling a time to the Governo'' ^*^ Provided, that 
if a fervant having had inftruilious from his Mafter to obferve this lawe,^^* 
doe, notw"'ftanding, tranfgrelTe the fame, that then the faid^^' fervant 
Ihalbe punilhed at the Governo''* difcretiou ; otherwife, that the mafter 
himfelfe fhall undergo the forefaid penalty. 

No man Ihall trade'*'*^ into the baye, either in fhallop, pinnace, or Ihip, 
w"'out the Govern'''" ^*^ licenfe, and w"'out putting in fecurity that neither 
himfelf nor his Company Ihall force or wrong the Indians, upon paine 
that, doing otherwife, they Ihalbe cenfured at their returne by the Gov- 
eru"-- 290 and CounfelP*" of Eftate. 

All perfons whatfoever upon the Sabaoth daye^'- fhall frequente divine 
fervice and fermous both forenoon and afternoon, and all fuche as beare 
annes fhall bring^'*^ their pieces, fwordes, poulder and Ihotte. And every 
one that fliall tranfgrefTe this lawe Ihall forfaidl^^^ three Ihillinges^^^ a time 
to the ufe of the churche, all lawful and necelfary impediments excepted. 
But if a fervant in this cafe Ihall wilfully negledle his M'' comande he 
Ihall fuffer bodily punilhmente. 

No maide or woman fervant, either now refident in the Colonic or 
hereafter to come, fhall contradl herfelfe in marriage w*''out either the con- 
fente of her parents, or of her M'^ or M", or of the magiftrat^'* and minifter 
of the place both together. And whatfoever minifter Ihall marry or con- 
tradle any fuche perfons w"'out fome of the forefaid confentes Ihalbe^^^ fub- 
jedle to the fevere cenfure of the Govern'' 2^- and Counfell-^^' of Eftate. 

Be it ena(5led by this^"" prefent alTembly that whatfoever fervant hath 
heretofore or fhall hereafter contradle himfelfe in England, either by way 
of Indenture or otherwife, to ferve any Mafter here in Virginia and Ihall 

378 prefente, McDonald. ^79 cjif^harge, McDonald, ^so Kicowtan, Bancroft, ^'^'of, 
inferted by McDonald. •''*'■- know, McDonald. 3*^ Governour, McDonald, Bancroft, 
^"■i Kiccowtan, McDonald, Bancroft. ^"^ Governor, McDonald, Bancroft. ^"^ McDon- 
ald read.s, obferve his fervice. ^*" s"", McDonald. ^"^^ Ihall have trade, Bancroft. ■'«" Gov- 
ernour's, McDonald, Bancroft, ^uu (jQypj-nour, McDonald ; Gov\ Bancroft, ^ai coun- 
cell, McDonald. 3».' cj^yg McDonald, Bancroft, ^''^bringe, McDonald, ^^'i forfaict, 
Bancroft. ^^^ Ihillings, Bancroft. 3"" magistrate, McDonald, s"' fhall be, McDonald, 
Bancroft. ^^^ Cover'", McDonald; Gov', Bancroft. •'"'Council, McDonald, -"'"the, 
McDonald. 



80 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

afterward, againft**" his faid former coutracfle, depart from his M"^ w"^out 
leave, or, being once imbarked, fhall abandon the fhip he is appointed to 
come in, and fo, being lefte behinde, fhall piitf "- himfelfe into the fervice 
of any other man that will bring him hither, that then at the fame fer- 
vant's arrival here, he Ihall firft ferve out his time with that M"^ that 
brought him hither and afterward alfo fhall ferve out his time^"^ w"" his for- 
mer M' according to his covenant. 

Here ende the lawes. 

All thefe lawes being thus concluded and confented to as aforefaide''*'^ 
Captaine Henry Spellman-*''^ was called to the barre to anfwere to certaine 
mifdemeano'^* layde to his chardge by Robert Poole, interpretour, upon his 
oath (whofe examination the Governo'' fente into England in the Prof- 
perus), of w'"' accufations of Poole fome he acknowledged for true, but the 
greatteft^"'' part he denyed. Whereupon the General*"'' Afiembly, having 
throughly heard and confidered his fpeaches, did conftitvite this order fol- 
lowing againft him : 

Aug. 4"', 1619. 

This day Captaine Henry Spelman*'"* was convented before the Gen- 
eral Affembly and was examined by a relation upon oath of one Robert 
Poole, Interpreter, what conference had palTed between the faid Spelman*^ 
and Opochancano at Poole's meeting with him in Opochancano's courte. 
Poole chardgeth him he fpake very unreverently and malicioufly againft*'" 
this prefent Govern^*" wherby the honour and dignity of his place and 
perfon, and fo of the whole Colonic, might be brought into contempte, by 
w''' meanes what mifchiefs might enfue from the Indians by difturbance of 
the peace or othcrwife, luay eafil)- be conjectured. Some thinges of this 
relation Spelman confeffed, but the moft part he denyed, excepte onely 
one matter of importance, & that was that he hade informed Opochancano 
that w"'in a yeare there woixld come a Governo'' '"'■^ greatter then*'^ this that 
nowe is in place. By w'='^ and by other reportes it feemeth he hath alien- 
ated the minde of Opochancano from this prefent Governour, and brought 
him in much difefteem, both w"' Opochancano*'* and the Indians, and the 
whole Colony in danger of their flippery defignes. 

The general affembly upon Poole's teftimony onely not willing to putt 
Spelman to the rigour and extremity of the lawe, w''' might, perhaps botli 
fpeedily and defervedly, have taken his life from him (upon the witnefs*''' 
of one whom he muche excepted againft), were pleafed, for the prefent, to 
cenfure him rather out of that his confeffion above written then*'^ out of 
any other prooffe. Several and Iharpe ptinilhments were pronounced 

401 Ag", McDonald. ^02 put_ McDonald, Bancroft. ^^^ McDonald omits the words, 
with that M'' that brought him hither and afterwards alfo fhall ferve out his time. 
■"^■•Aforefaid, Bancroft. ■""^ Spelman, McDonald. ^"^ greatelt, McDonald. *°' gen', Ban- 
croft, ■'"sspellman, Bancroft, "i"' Spellman, Bancroft. ■»!" ag»', McDonald. *'i Gov- 
ernour, Bancroft. ■'1" Governour, McDonald, Bancroft. ■''^ than, McDonald, Bancroft. 
■"■•Opachancanos, McDonald, ■"•'•witnes, McDonald, Bancroft, ■""than, Bancroft. 



SIR GEORGE YEARDLEY. 81 

againft^''' him by diverfe of the Affembly, But in fine the whole courfe^'* 
by voices uuited did enclinc to Uie nioft favourable, W '' was that for this 
mifdemeanour^'" he fhould firft be degraded of his title of Captaine,^-" at 
the head of the troupe, aud fhould be condemned to perfomie feven yeares 
fervice to the Colony in the nature of Interpreter to the Governour. 

This fentence being read to Spelman he, as one that had in him more 
of the Savage then of the Chriftian, muttered certaine wordes to himfelfe 
neither fhewing any remorfe for his offences, nor yet any thankfulnefs to 
the Aflembly for theire fofavourable cenfure, w"*" he at one time or another 
(God's grace not wholly abandoning him) might w"' fome one fervice have 
been able to have redeemed.* 

This day alfo did the Inhabitants of Pafpaheigh, alias Argall's towne, 
prefent a petition to the general aifembly to give them an abfolute dif- 
chardge from certaine bondes wherin they ftand bound to Captain Samuell 
Argall for the paym' of 6oo'^,'''^' and to Captain William Powell, at Captain 
Argall's appointment, for the paym* of 50^ ^^'- more. To Captaine ArgaU 
for 15 Ikore acres of wooddy ground, called by the name of Argal's^-^ towne 
or Pafpaheigh ; to Captaine Powell in refpe6l of his paines in clearing the 
grounde and building the houfes, for w"'' Captaine^'-'' Argal ought to have 
given him fatisfadtiou. Nowe,'*'^^ the general aflembly being doubtful 
whether they have any power and authority to difchardge the faid bondes, 
doe by thefe prefents^-"^ (at the Inftance of the faid Inhaljitants^-"' of Pafpa- 
heighs, alias Martin's hundred people) become moft humble futours to the 
Trefurer, Counfell and Company in England that they wilbe'*"'* pleafed to 
gett the faid bondes for 600^* '''-^ to be cancelled ; forasmuche as in their 
great comilTiou they have expreflly and by name appointed that place of 
Pafpaheigh for parte of the Governo'''*''^" lande. And wheras Captain'*^' 
William Powell is payde*"^ his 50^ w"'' Captaine*^^ Argall enjoined the faide 
Inhabitantes to preferite him with, as parte*"'' of the bargaine, the general 
affembly, at their intreaty, do become futours on their behalfe, that Cap- 
taine Argall, by the Counfell & Company in England, may be compelled 
either to reftore the faid 50*^ ^'^'■' from thence, or elfe that reftitution therof 
be made here out of the goods of the faid Captain Argall. 

The laft acfle of the General Affembly was a contribution to gratifie 
their officers, as foUoweth :t 



* This paragraph appears onlj' in the McDonald copy, and in that it has two rows 
of lines at right angles to each other and diagonally across it, as if to indicate that this 
portion of the record was considered as being improperly made or, perhaps, was not 
official. 

t This paragraph is in the McDonald and Bancroft copies but not in De Jarnette's. 

417 Ag"', McDonald. '"*' courte, McDonald, Bancroft. ■"" mifdemeanor, McDonald ; 
mifdemeanr, Bancroft. ■'^"Capt., McDonald. "I'-i 6ooL', McDonald; /'60, Bancroft. 
*22 5oii, McDonald; ^50, Bancroft. <" Argall's, McDonald. •''^■'Capt., Bancroft. 
<-^ now, McDonald, ^^''prefentes, McDonald, Bancroft. ''-■' Inhabit'", Bancroft. ■•'■"< will 
be, McDonald, Bancroft. ^''■'^ 600'', McDonald ; £(iO, Bancroft. •'3" Governours, McDon- 
ald, Bancroft. •'3' Captaine, McDonald, Bancrott. ''^'■'paide, Bancroft. '^^ Capt., Ban- 
croft. <3< part, Bancroft. *'^^ 50'', McDonald ; /"50, Bancroft. 



82 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Aug. 4"', 1619. 

It is fully agreed at this generall''^" Affeiiiljly that iu regarde of the 
great^^' paiiies and labour of the*^* Speaker of this Affenibly (who not 
onely*^* firft formed the fame Affembly and to their great eafe & expedi- 
tion reduced all matters to be treatted of into a ready method, but alfo his 
indifpofition notw"'ftauding wrote or didlated all orders and other expedi- 
ents and is yet^''^' to write feverall bookes for all the GeneralP^' Incorpora- 
tions and plantations both of the great charter, and of all the lawes) and 
likewife in refpedle of the dilligence of the Gierke and fergeant, officers 
thereto belonging. That every man and manfervant of above 16 yeares of 
age Ihall pay into the handes and Cuftody of the BurgelTes of every Incor- 
poration and plantation one pound of the beft Tobacco, to be diftributed to 
the Speaker and likewife to the Gierke and fargeant of the Affembly, 
according to their degrees and rankes, the whole bulke whereof to be deliv- 
ered into the Speaker's handes, to be divided accordingly. And in 
regarde*^** the Provoft Marfhall of James citty hath alfo given fonie attend- 
ance upon the faid General! Affembly, he is alfo to have a Ihare out of the 
fame. And this is to begin to be gathered the 24"' of February nexte. 

In conclusion, the whole Affembly comauuded^^ the Speaker (as 
nowe he doth) to prefent their humble excufe to the Treafurer"^ Gounfell 
& Gompany in England for being conftrained by the intemperature of the 
weather and the falling fick of diverfe of the Burgeffes to breake up fo 
abruptly — before they had fo much as putt their lawes to the ingroffmg. 
This they wholly comited to""^ the fidelity of their fpeaker, who therin^^^ 
(his confcience telles him) hath done the parte'*^" of an honeft man, other- 
wife he would be eafily founde'*'*'* out by the Burgeffes themfelves, who w"' 
all expedition are to have fo many bookes of the fame lawes as there be 
both Incorporations and Plantations in the Golony. 

In the feconde place, the Affembly doth moft humbly crave pardon 
that in fo fhorte'"" a fpace thej"^ could bring their matter to no^^" more per- 
fedlion, being for the prefent enforced to fende home titles rather then 
lawes, Propofitions rather then refolutions, Attemptes then Acchievements, 
hoping their courtefy will accepte our poore indevour, and their wifdome 
wilbe^^' ready to fupporte the weaknes of this little flocke. 

Thirdly, the General Affembly doth humbly befeech^^'' the faid 
Treafurer,^^^ Gounfell & Gompany, that albeit it belongeth to them onely 
to allowe or to abrogate any lawes w''"' we Ihall here niake,^^^ and that it is 
their right fo to doe,'*^° yet that it would please them not to take it in ill 
parte if thefe lawes w'" we have nowe brought to light, do paffe currant*^"* 

isogeneral, McDonald. ■'^■' greate, Bancroft, ''^^this, McDonald. ■'^'' only, Mc- 
Donald. 'i'"'yett, Bancroft, ''•"feverall, McDonald, Bancroft, ''''■■^regard to, McDon- 
ald; regard, Bancroft. ^^^ comanded, McDonald, Bancroft. ''•''' Trefurer, McDonald, 
Bancroft. •'^^ in, Bancroft. ^^'' therein, McDonald, •'■"part, McDonald, ■""woulde 
eafily be found, McDonald ; woulde eaCly be founde, Bancroft, ^^"fhort, McDonald. 
•"'" no, omitted by McDonald, '"'i -will be, McDonald, Bancroft. ""^^ befeeche, McDonald. 
4.13 Trefurer, McDonald. '^' inacte, McDonald, Bancroft. ■'^^ righte foe to do, McDonald ; 
right to of doe, Bancroft. ■'^'' current, Bancroft. 



SIJ^ GEORGE YEARDLEY. 83 

& be of force till fuche time as wc*^' may knowe their farther pleafure out 
of Englande : for otherwife this people (who nowe at length have gotte*'* 
the raiues^^^ of former fervitude into their owne fwindge) would in fliorte 
time growe fo infolent, as they would lliake off all government, and there 
would be no living among them. 

Their laft humble fuite is,''*" that the faid Counfell & Company would 
be pleafed, so foon as they Ihall finde^'^' it convenient to make good their 
promife fett dowue""^- at the conclufion of their commiflion for eftablilhing 
the Counfel^**^ of Eftate & the General^'''* AiTembly, namely, that they will 
give us power to allowe or difallowe of their orders of Courte, as his 
]yjai.v4(j5 iiath given them power to allowe or to rejedt'*'"' our lawes. 

In fume Sir George Yeardley, the Governo'"*" prorogued the faid 
GeneraP'^^ Aflembly till the firfte of Marche, which is to fall out this 
prefent yeare of 1619, and in the mean feafon dilfolved the fame. 

FINIS. 

I certify that the foregoing- is a true and 
authentic copy taken from the volume 
above named. 

JOHN McDONAGH, 

Record Agent. 

July 14th, 1871. 

The McDonald copy has the following after Finis : 

(in Dorfo.) 
1619. 

The proceedings of the firft Aflembly of Virginia. July 1619. 
True Copy, 

AUGUSTUS AUSTEN BURT. 

The above document is taken from the Colonial Records 
of Virginia. This record was printed from copies of the 
original obtained from the Public Record Office of Great 
Britain; viz., the McDonald and De Jarnette copies, and an 
abstradl furnished by Mr. Sainsbury ; Bancroft, also, ob- 
tained a copy, but the De Jarnette copy being in loose sheets 
was selecfled as the most convenient for the printer. When- 
ever a difference in either of these versions occurs, the foot- 
notes make mention of it. 

^^' wee, McDonald. ■""" gott, McDonald; got, Bancroft, '"'^reines, McDonald; 
raines, Bancroft. ^"" suit, McDonald, ^''i find, McDonald. ^'■- down, McDonald. ^''^Coun- 
i'ell, McDonald, Bancroft. ■"" Generall, McDonald. •'"^ Majefty, McDonald ; Ma'v, Ban- 
croft, ^''"rejecte, McDonald, Bancroft. "" Cover'"', McDonald; Goveruour, Bancroft. 
^'"- Generall, McDonald. 



84 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

A natural desire had long existed to know something of 
the proceedings of the first legislative Assembly ever held in 
Virginia, an event which inaugurated a new era in the his- 
tory of the hitherto disturbed and oppressed Colony. The 
historian, Stith, could find no trace of this paper; Jefferson 
searched for it in vain, and the patient, painstaking Hening 
believed it no longer extant. 

What a prize then, is this "Reporte," in its full and cir- 
cumstantial details of the baptism of representative govern- 
ment in the New World. 

Here, it will be seen that this first legislative Assembly in 
the wilds of America was opened with prayer, and that in its 
deliberations the Church of England was confirmed as the 
Church of Virginia. 

When Christopher Columbus ceased from the recital of his 
successful voyage of discovery before the Court of Spain, it is 
said that Ferdinand and Isabella, " together with all present, 
prostrated themselves on their knees in grateful thanksgiving, 
while the solemn strains of the Te Deum were poured forth 
by the choir of the royal chapel, as in commemoration of some 
glorious vi(ftory." And yet, this first Assembly in the land 
rescued from darkness by the liberality of Spain, was opened 
by a prayer which rose to Heaven, not in the liquid language 
of old Castile, but in the English tongue ! 

In the far past, the Creed held sway that the Pope of 
Rome, as vicar of Jesus Christ, had power to dispose of all 
countries inhabited by heathen nations, in favor of Christian 
potentates; and yet, the three papal bulls of Alexander VI., 
"out of his pure liberality, infallible knowledge, and pleni- 
tude of apostolic power," investing Spain with plenary 
authority over all countries discovered by it, and confirming 
its absolute possession of the same, all previous concessions 
to the contrary notwithstanding ; yet, with all the weight of 
adlual discovery, and the decrees of the pontifical throne 
in support of Spain, not the triple crown of Rome, but ''The 
Church of England,'' first raised its spire in these primeval 
forests. Here it laid broad and deep the foundations of that 
Holy Religion which has been the bulwark of Virginia's 



.SYA' GEORGE YEARDLEY. 85 

liberties, the strength of her manhood, the glory of her 
womanhood ; the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire 
by night, which for nearly three centuries has preserved the 
true and higher life of this noble old commonwealth ! 

The London Company approved the Colonial Assembly 
which had been convened by Sir George Yeardley, and on 
the 24th of July, 162 1, a memorable ordinance, established for 
the colony a written constitution. Its terms were few and 
simple, but the system of representative government and trial 
by jury became an acknowledged right in the New World. 
On this celebrated ordinance Virginia eredled the superstrudl- 
ure of her independence. "It constituted the plantation, in 
its infancy, a nursery of freemen," and its influences — some- 
times written in letters of living light, sometimes written in 
blood — may be traced through all her history.* 

As an evidence of the increasing prosperity of the colony, 
it may be stated that in 1619, 20,000 pounds of tobacco were 
exported to England from Virginia; in April, 1620, a special 
commission was issued by King James for the inspe(5lion of 
this weed, and in June following, a proclamation for restrain- 
ing the disorderly trading in the obnoxious article. Thus its 
uses and abuses began at an early period of colonial enter- 
prise. 

This year of 1620 is also memorable for the introduction 
of negro slaves into Virginia. A Dutch man-of-war landed 
twenty negroes for sale, and these were the first brought into 
the country — 

' ' The direful spring 
Of woes unnumbered " 

to the far-off descendants of the colonists. 

*See Hening's " Statutes at Large," Laws ofVirginia, Vol. I., pp. 110-118. 



XIX. 

SIR FRANCIS WYATT. 

Governor and Captain-General. 
November 8, 162 1, to May 17, 1626. 

Sir Francis Wyatt came to Virginia in Odlober, 1621, 
at the request of Governor Yeardley, whose term of office was 
soon to expire. He succeeded Yeardley, November 8, 1621, 
and was in his turn succeeded by Sir George Yeardley, May 
17, 1626. Wyatt brought with him the new Constitution for 
the Colony, and the opening clause of his instructions reads 
as follows : 

" To keep up religion of the Church of England as near 
as may be ; to be obedient to the King and do justice after 
the form of the laws of England ; and not to injure the na- 
tives; and to forget old quarrels now buried." 

During Wyatt's administration the Indian massacre of 
March 22, 1622, occurred, in which 347 of the colonists were 
killed, and " the 22d of March " was ordered by the General 
Assembly held March 5, 1623, to "be yearly solemnized as 
holliday," in commemoration of the escape of the Colony 
from entire extirpation at this time. The calamities which 
had befallen the Virginia Colony, and the dissensions which 
had agitated the Company having been represented to the 
King, he, after some measures of inquiry, had the matter 
brought to trial in the Court of King's Bench, where judg- 
ment was given against the Virginia Company, and the 
charter vacated in 1624. King James now issued a new 
commission for the government of Virginia, continuing Sir 
Francis Wyatt in his office, with 11 Counsellors, and empow- 
ering them to govern " as fully and aniplye as any Governor 
and Council resident there, at any time within the space of 
five years now last past." This term of five years was pre. 



.S7A' FRANCIS WVATT. 87 

cisely the established period of representative government, and 
so the continuance of popular assemblies was formally sanc- 
tioned. But King James was denied the task of giving to 
the Colony a code of fundamental laws, for he died March 
27, 1625, and was succeeded by Charles I. 

The demise of the Crown having annulled all former 
appointments for Virginia, Charles I. now reduced that Col- 
on}^ under the immediate direction of the throne, appointing 
a Governor and Council, and ordering all patents and processes 
to issue in his own name. His proclamation "for settling 
the plantation of Virginia," is dated May 13, 1625. When, 
however,- early in 1626, Wyatt retired, the re-appointment of 
Sir George Yeardley by Charles I. was a guarantee in itself 
that, as " the former interests of Virginia were to be kept in- 
violate," so the representative government would be con- 
tinued, for it was Yeardley who had introduced the system. 
King Charles, intent only on increasing his revenue, favored 
the wishes of the colonists, and in his commission to Yeard- 
ley expressed his desire to encourage and perfedl the planta- 
tion ' ' by the same means that were formerly thought fit for 
the maintenance of the Colony." He also limited the power 
of the Governor and Council, as had before been done in the 
commission of Wyatt, by a reference to the usages of the last 
five years. In that period representative liberty had become 
the custom of Virginia. A new heaven and a new earth had 
spread before the Virginia colonist, and time nor change has 
ever blotted from his race that love of freedom which he first 
tasted then. 



XX, 



SIR GEORGE YEARDLEY. • 

Governor and Captain-General. 

May 17, 1626, to November 14, 1627. 

When, earl}' in 1626, Wyatt retired from office (returning 
to Ireland on account of the death of his father), Charles I. 
appointed Sir George Yeardley his successor. Virginia rose, 
now, rapidly in public esteem. In 1627 one thousand emi- 
grants arrived, and there was an increasing demand for the 
rich products of this virgin soil. During Yeardley 's three 
administrations many and great events in the life of the Col- 
ony had taken place. Posterity retains a grateful recolledlion 
of the man who called together the first representative assem- 
bly in the New World. His career was closed by death, in 
November, 1627, and the colonists, in a letter to the Privy 
Council, pronounced a eulogy on his virtues. The day after 
his burial, and in the absence of John Harvey, who was named 
in Yeardley's commission as his eventual successor, Francis 
West was elected Governor, for the Council was authorized to 
elect the Governor " from time to time, as often as the case 
should require." 



XXI. 

CAPTAIN FRANCIS WEST. 

President of the Cotuicil 

and 

Governor. 

November 14, 1627, to March 5, 1629. 

Captain Francis West was a younger brother of lyord 
De la Warr. He came to the Colony early in its settlement. 
Here he married, and was long a member of the Council. In 
1623 he went to Plymouth with a commission to be Admiral 
of New England. He was authorized to restrain vessels 
from fishing or trading on the coast without a license from 
the New England Council, but, meeting with difficulty in 
executing this part of his commission, he sailed for Virginia. 

When Governor Yeardley died, the administration de- 
volved on West. During his control of affairs the Colony 
received large accessions of emigrants from Europe. Captain 
West returned to England, March 5, 1629, when Dr. John 
Pott succeeded him in presiding over the fortunes of the Col- 
ony. Captain West is said to have come back again to 
Virginia, and to have met his death by drowning. 



89 



XXII. 

DOCTOR JOHN POTT. 

Pre side 71 1 of the Council 

ayid 

Governor. 

March 5, 1629, to March, 1630. 

Sir John Harvey was appointed Governor and Captain- 
General, March 26, 1628, but not coming to Virginia at once, 
Dr. John Pott succeeded Captain Francis West in the gov- 
ernment, and continued in office until the arrival of Sir John 
Harvey in March, 1630. During this period the Assembly 
was twice convened, and many regulations adopted for the 
defense of the Colony. Dr. Pott had accompanied Sir Francis 
Wyatt to Virginia as physician, in October, 1621, and was a 
member of the Council under the provisional government 
constituted by the King in 1624. He was esteemed the best 
surgeon and physician in the Colony. 



90 



XXIII. 

SIR JOHN HARVEY. 

Governor and Captain-General. 
March, 1630, to April, 1635. 

John Harvey was commissioned Governor of the Colony, 
March 26, 1628, and was knighted soon after by Charles I. 
He met his first Assembly of Burgesses, March 24, 1630. 
Harvey was one of the most rapacious, tyrannical, and un- 
popular of the royal Governors ; was suspended by an indig- 
nant Assembly in 1635, and impeached, but was restored by the 
King the next year, and continued in office until 1639. But, 
during the period of his oflfice, despite his partial judgments 
and cruel exercise of power, the accustomed legislative rights 
of the Colony were unimpaired. 

On June 20, 1632, Charles I. granted to Lord Baltimore 
a patent for a portion of Virginia, which he named " Mary- 
land " in honor of his Queen. This grant gave great 
umbrage to the planters of Virginia, and offers the first 
example in colonial history of the dismemberment of an 
ancient colony by the formation of a new province, with sep- 
arate and equal rights. Virginia regarded the severing of 
her territory with apprehension. She remonstrated against 
the grant "as an invasion of her commercial rights, an 
infringement on her domains, and a discouragement to her 
planters "; but she remonstrated in vain, 

John Han^ey courted the favor of lyord Baltimore and 
sympathized with Maryland in the dispute over Kent 
Island and trade in the Chesapeake, and he was odious to 
the colonists, whose territorial interests he betrayed. They 
rose in indignation at his abuse of power, and on the 28th of 
April, 1635, arrested him "for treason " and drove him out 
of the country. But the territory of Maryland they could 
not reclaim ; it had been taken from Virginia forever. 



XXIV. 



CAPTAIN JOHN WEST. 

President of the Coimcil. 
April 28, 1635, to April 2, 1636. 

Captain John West was a younger brother of Lord De 
la Warr. When Sir John Harvey was "thrust out of his 
government," April 28, 1635, John West was selecfled to suc- 
ceed him. He in turn was superseded by Hai-vey, April 
2, 1636. 

In March, 1659-60, when Sir William Berkeley was Gov- 
ernor, the House of Burgesses passed the following adl : 

"Whereas, the many important favours and services ren- 
dered to the countrey of Virginia by the noble family of the 
West, predecessors to Mr. John West, their now only sur- 
vivor, claim at least that a grateful remembrance of their 
former merrits be still continued to their survivor, // is ordered 
That the levies of the said Master West and his family be 
remitted, and that he be exempted from payment thereof dur- 
ing life." 

Captain John West remained in Virginia until his death. 



XXV. 



SIR JOHN HARVEY. 

Governor and Captain-General. 

April 2, 1636, to November, 1639. 

Reinstated in his office by Charles the First, Sir John 
Harvey returned to Virginia. Without delay he met the 
Council at the church, at Elizabeth City, and published the 
King's proclamation pardoning, with a few exceptions, all 
persons who had given aid in the late uprising against him. 
In November, 1639, he was superseded by Sir Francis Wyatt. 



93 



XXVL 

SIR FRANCIS WYATT. 

Govej'nor and Captain-General. 

November, 1639, to February, 1642. 

In November, 1639, Sir Francis Wyatt succeeded to 
power, and convened a General Assembly in the fqllowing 
January. The Xlth A(5l of this Assembly reads: "James 
City to be the chief town and Governor is to have his resi- 
dence there." In consequence of laws restri (fling the culture 
of tobacco, this Assembly (A(5l VIII.) declared " Not to pay 
above two thirds of their debts during the stint." Beyond 
this, the administration of Wyatt, during this, his second 
term, passed quietly away. He died at Bexley, Kent, Eng- 
land, in 1644. 



04 



XXVII. 

SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY. 

Governor and Captain-General. 
February, 1642, to June, 1644. 

Sir William Berkeley was constituted Governor 
August 9, 1 64 1, but did not assume the government until 
February, 1642. Harmony prevailed, and the memory of 
ancient griefs was lost in the growing spirit of independence 
which thrilled through every vein of the new and growing 
Body Politic. Virginia now enjoyed all the liberties which a 
monarch could concede and retain his supremacy. 

The Indians, however, goaded on by grievous wrongs and 
a determination on the part of the settlers to make no terms 
of peace with them, resolved upon a general massacre of the 
pale-faced foe. This they attempted on April 18, 1644, but 
after slaying three hundred they abandoned their savage work 
and fled to the woods. So little was apprehended from them 
after this, that two months later Governor Berkeley embarked 
for England and left Richard Kempe as his substitute. 

Sir William Berkeley was born near London in 16 10. He 
was educated at Oxford, and by extensive travel and acquaint- 
ance with the world, was well fitted for the position of influ- 
ence to which he was appointed in the Colony. How sad that 
so fair an entrance into power should e'er have had so foul an 
ending ! 



'J5 



XXVIII. 

RICHARD KEMPE. 

President of the Coiincil 

mid 

Acting- Governor. 

June, 1644, to June, 1645. 

Richard Kempe comes before us first as a member of 
the Council of Virginia, in 1642, and in 1644 as Adling Gov- 
ernor during Sir William Berkeley's absence in England. 
Bishop Meade, in his "Old Churches, Ministers, and Fam- 
ilies of Virginia," says: 

" There is one name on the foregoing list* to which I must allude as 
having, at an early period in the history of Virginia, been charadlerized 
by a devotion to the welfare of the Church and religion — that of Kcnipe. 
The name often occurs on the vestry-book of Middlesex County in such a 
way as to show this. The high esteem in which one of the family was 
held, is seen from the fa(5l that he was the Governor of the Colony in 1644, 
and the following extract from the first volume of Hening's Statutes will 
show not only the religious character of those in authority at that day, but 
the probability that Governor Kempe sympathized in the movement, for 
the Governors had great powder either to promote or prevent such a meas- 
ure. In 1644 it was — 

'Enadled by the Governor, Council, and Burgesses of this Grand 
Assembly, for God's glory and the public benefit of the Colony, to the 
end that God might avert his heavy judgments that are upon us, that the 
last Wednesday in every month be set apart for fast and humiliation, and 
that it be wholly dedicated to prayers and preaching, &c. 

'Richard Kempe, Esq., Governor.' 

" I do not remember ever to have seen such an indefinite and pro- 
longed period appropriated by a public body to public humiliation. It 
speaks well for the religion of our public fun6tiouaries of that day." 

* Leading families from the earliest to the present times, in the parishes of Abing- 
ton and Ware. 



RICHARD KEMPE. 97 

On Sir William Berkeley's return, Richard Kempe con- 
tinued to serve the Colony as a member of the Council until 
1648, and perhaps later, and subsequently adled as the Secre- 
tary of that body. 

On a slab in the grave-3ard around the old church at 
Williamsburg, Bruton Parish, Virginia, and lying against 
the wall of the church in order to preserve it, might be seen, 
a few years ago, the following : 

" Under this marble lyeth the body of Thomas Ludwell, Esquire, Sec- 
retary of Va., who was born at Bruton, in the County of Somerset, in the 
Kingdom of England, and departed this life in the year 1678. And near 
this lye the bodies of Richard Kempe, Esquire, his predecessor in the Sec- 
retary's office, and Sir Thomas Lunsford, Knight. In memory of whom 
this marble is placed, by order of Philip Ludwell, Esq., nephew of said 
Thomas Ludwell, in the year 1727." 



XXIX. 



SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY. 

Govenwr. 
June, 1645, to April 30, 1652. 

WhiIvE the Colony of Virginia was acquiring the manage- 
ment of its own concerns, slowly but surely England was being 
distradled by a civil war. This war resulted in the dethrone- 
ment and capture of the King, who was afterwards beheaded in 
front of his palace at Whitehall, January 30, 1649. Justice 
was no longer to be administered in the King's name, and the 
title of the realm was exchanged for that of ' ' The Connnon- 
wealth of England." Oliver Cromwell was declared Captain- 
General of the troops of the state, and afterwards rose to the 
supreme power, with the title of Protedlor. During this civil 
war. Governor Berkeley took the royal side, and Virginia was 
the last of the English possessions which acknowledged the 
authority of Cromwell. Two years after Charles I. was 
beheaded. Parliament sent a fleet to Virginia to compel its 
submis,sion. Sir William Berkeley was obliged then to sur- 
render to superior power. 

Cromwell ruled England for eleven years, during which 
time peace and prosperity reigned in all the countries under 
his control. Although Virginia had been forced to submit to 
his authority, she never gave up her loyalty to the throne of 
England. She sent a vessel to Flanders, to the son of Charles 
I., who was in exile there, offering him her support, and invit- 
ing him to come to Virginia and set up his throne upon her 
territory. Charles accepted, and was actually preparing to 
embark when his subjects in England recalled him to the 
throne of his fathers. Once established in powder, Charles II., 
in gratitude to Virginia for her loyalty, caused her to be pro- 
claimed an independent member of his empire, which was to 



S/A' WILLIAM BERKELEY. 99 

consist of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Virginia, and her 
coat-of-arnis was added to those of the other three countries 
comprised in his realm. Ever since that time Virginia has 
retained the title of "The Old Dominion." 

Sir William Berkeley was superseded in Virginia by 
Richard Bennet, April 30, 1652. 



XXX. 

RICHARD BENNET. 

Acting Goi'ernor Under the Commonweal t/i of 

Cromwell. 

April 30, 1652, to March, 1655. 

Richard Bennet first took part in colonial affairs as 

Burgess, in October, 1629, from " Warrosquoj^eake," which 

formed one of the eight original shires, in the j^ear 1634. This 

shire embraced a distance of ninety miles, but its name was soon 

changed to Isle of Wight, and in 1642 it was divided into two 

parishes, the upper and lower, or Newport and Warwicks- 

queake, each extending the full length of the county, or ninety 

miles. 

Under Berkeley's administration, Richard Bennet had 

been oppressed in Virginia, and he fled to Maryland to 
escape persecution. From thence he went to London, where, 
on September 26, 165 1, he was chosen as one of the commis- 
sioners appointed by the Commonwealth of England to reduce 
the royal Colony of Virginia to submission. The commis- 
sioners were constituted pacificators and benefadlors of the 
country. In case of resistance, war was threatened; if Vir- 
ginia would adhere to the Commonwealth, she might be the 
mistress of her own destiny. 

The following reports of ofiicial papers bearing on this 
period are taken from Hening's "Statutes at Large," Vol. I.: 

ARTICLES AT THE SURRENDER OF THE COUNTRIE. 

ARTICLES agreed 071 and concluded at James Cittie in Virginia for 
the surrendering and settling of that plantation under the obedience 
and govertnent of the Common Wealth of England, by the commis- 
sioners of the Coicncill of State, by aiithoritie of the Parliament 
of England atid by the Grand Assembly of the Governour, Councill 
and Burgesses of that countrey. 
First. It is agreed and cons'ted that the plantatiou of Virginia, and 

all the inhabitants thereof, shall be and rcniaine in due obedience and 



Kf CHARD RENNET. 101 

subjedlion to the comnion wealth of England, according to the lawes there 
established, And that this submission and subscription bee acknowledged 
a voluntary a6t not forced nor constrained bj- a conquest upon the countrey. 
And that they shall have and enioy such freedomes and priviledges as 
belong to the free borne people of England, and that the former govern- 
ment by the comissions and instructions be void and null. 

2dly. Secondly, that the Grand Assembly as formerly shall convene 
and transact the affairs of Virginia, wherein nothing is to be acted or done 
contrarie to the goverment of the common wealth of England and the 
lawes there established. 

3dly. That there shall be a full and totall remission and indempnitie 
of all acts, words or writeings done or spoken against the parliament of 
England in relation of the same. 

4thly. That Virginia shall have and enioy the antient bounds and 
lymitts granted by the charters of the former Kings, And that we shall 
seek a new charter from the parliament to the purpose against any that 
have intrencht upon the rights thereof. 

5thly. That all the pattents of land granted vnder the coUony scale, 
by any of the precedent Governours, shall be and remaine in their full 
force and strength. 

6thly. That the priviledge of haveing ffiftie acres of land for everj- 
person transported in the collony shall continue as formerly granted. 

7thly. That the people of Virginia have free trade as the people of 
England do enjoy to all places and with all nations according to the lawes 
of that common wealth. And that Virginia shall enjoy all priviledges 
equall with any English plantations in America. 

8thly. That Virginia shall be free from all taxes, customes and impo- 
sitions whatsoever, and none to be imposed on them without consent of 
the Grand Assembly, And soe that neither ffortes nor castles bee erected 
or garrisons maintained without their consent. 

9thly. That noc charge shall be required from this countrc}' in respect 
of this present ffleet. 

lothly. That for the future settlement of the counti'ey in their due 
obedience, the engagement shall be tendrcd to all the inhabitants, accord- 
ing to act of parliament made to that purpose, that all persons who shall 
refuse to subscribe the said engagement, shall have a yeares time if they 
please to remove themselves and their estates out of Virginia, and in the 
meantime during the said yeare to have equall justice as formerly. 

iithly. That the vse of the booke of common prayer shall be per- 
mitted for one yeare ensucinge with referrence to the consent of the major 
part of the parishes. Provided that those things which relate to kingshipp 
or that government be not vsed publiquely ; and the continuance of min- 
isters in their places, they not misdemeaning themselves : And the pay- 
ment of their accustomed dues and agreements made with them respect- 
ively shall be left as they now stand during this ensueing yeare. 



102 RICHARD RENNET. 

I2thly. That no man's cattell shall be questioned, as the companie 
rules such as have been entrusted with them or have disposed of them 
without order. 

I3thly. That all aniunition, powder and arms, other then for private 
vse shall be delivered up, securitie being given to make satisfaction for it. 

I4thly. That all goods allreadie brought hither by the Dutch or 
others which are now on shoar shall be free from surprizall. 

I5thly. That the quittrents granted vnto vs by the late Kiuge for 
seaven yeares bee confirmed. 

i6thly. That the commissioners for the parliament subscribing these 
articles engage themselves and the honour of the parliament for the full 
performance thereof : And that the present Governour and the Councill 
and the Burgesses do likewise subscribe and engage the whole collony on 
their parts. 

Rich: Bennett, Scale. 
Wm. Ci^aiborne, Scale. 
Edmond Curtis, Seale. 

Theise articles were signed and sealed by the commissionors of the 
Councill of State for the Common Wealth of England, the twelveth day 
of March, 1651. 

ARTICLES for the sicrrendriiig Virginia to the subjeflioii 0/ the Par- 
lia^nent of the Common Wealth of England agreed vppon by the 
honourable the Comissioners for the Parliament and the hon'ble, 
the Governour and Councill of State. 

First. That neither Governour nor councill shall be obliged to take 
any oath or engagement to the Common-Wealth of England for one whole 
yeare, And that neither Governor nor Councill be censured for praying 
for or speaking well of the King for one whole yeare in their private 
houses or neighbouring conference. 

adly. That there be one sent home at the present Governour's choice 
to give an accempt to his Ma'tie of the surrender of his countrey,the pres- 
ent Governour bearing his charges, that is Sir William Berkley. 

3dly. That the present Governouf , that is Sir William Berkeley, and 
the Councill shall have leave to sell and dispose of their estates, and to 
transporte themselves whether they please. 

4thly. That the Governour and Councill though they take not the 
engagement for one whole yeare shall yet have equall and free justice in 
all courts of Virginia until the expiration of one whole yeare. 

5thly. That all the Governour's and Councill's land and houses, and 
whatsoever belongeth to them bee perticularly secured and provided for in 
these articles. 

6thly. That all debts of the Governour's by adt of Assembly, and all 
debts due to officers made by the Assembly bee perfedlly made good to 
them. And that the Governour be paid out of the goods remaining in the 



RICHARD BEN NET. 103 

couutrey of the Dutch ship that went away cleer for Holland without pay- 
ing his customs. 

ythl}-. That the Governoiir may have free leave to hire a shipp for 
England or Holland to carrie away the Governour's goods, and the Coun- 
cill's, and what he or they have to transporte for Holland or England 
without any lett or any molestation of any of the State's shipps att 

sea or in their rivers or elsewhere by any of the shipps in the common 
wealth of England whatsoever. 

Sthly. That the Capt. of the fforte be allowed satisfa6lion for the 
building of his house in fiForte Island. 

gthly. That all persons that are now in this coUonic of what qualit}- 
or condition soever that have served the King here or in England shall be 
free from all dangers, punishment or mulkt whatsoever, here or else- 
where, and this art'e as all other articles bee in as cleer termes as the 
learned in the law of arms can express. 

lothly. That the same instant that the commissions are resigned, an 
adl of indempnitie and oblivion be issued out vnder the hands and scales of 
the commissioners for the parliament. And that noe persons in any courte 
of justice in Virginia be questioned for their opinions given in any causes 
determined by them. 

iithly. That the Goveniour and Councill shall have their passes to 
go away from hence in anie shipps in any time within a year : And in 
case they goe for London or other place in England that they or anie of 
them shall be free from anie trouble or hindrance of arrest or such like in 
England, and that they may follow their occasions for the space of six 
months after their arrivall. 

Rich: Bennett, Scale. 
Wm. Claiborne, Scale. 
Edmond Curtis, Scale. 

Theise articles were signed, sealed, sworne vnto by vs the commission- 
ers for the parliament of the common wealth of England, the 12th of 
March, 165 1. 

AN ACT OF INDEMOUITIE MADE ATT THE SURRENDER OF 
THE CONTREY. 

Whereas by the authoritie of the parliament of England, wee the 
commissioners appointed by the Councill of State authorized thereto hav- 
ing brought a fleete and force before James Cittie in Virginia to reduce 
that collonie vnder the obedience of the common-wealth of England, and 
finding force raised by the Governour and countrey to make opposition 
against the said ffleet, whereby assured danger appcaringe of the mine and 
destrutflion of the plantation, for prevention whereof the Burgesses of all 
the severall plantations being called to advise and assist thei-ein, vppon 
long and serious debate, and in sad contemplation of the grate miseries 
and certaine destrudlion, which were soe nearly hovering over this whole 



104 RICHARD BEN NET. 

countrey, Wee the said commissioners have thought fitt and con- 
descended and granted to signe and confirme under our hands, scales and 
by our oath, Articles bearinge date with theise presents. And do further 
declare, That by the authoritie of the parliament and commonwealth of 
England derived vnto vs theire commissioners. That according to the 
articles in generall. Wee have granted an a6l of indempuitie and oblivion 
to all the inhabitants of this colloney, from all words, adlions or writings 
that have been spoken, a(5led or writt against the parliament or common 
wealth of England or any other person from the beginning of the world to 
this daye, And this we have done, That all the inhabitants of the collonie 
may live quietly and securely vnder the comon-wealth of England, And 
wee do promise that the parliament and common wealth of England shall 
confirme and make good all those transacftions of ours, Wittnes our hands 
and scales this 12th day of March, 165 1. 

Richard Bennett, Scale. 

Wm. Claiborne, Scale. 

Edm. Curtis, Scale. 

Richard Bennet had the great satisfacftion of benefiting 
permanently the home of his adoption. Virginia now 
enjoyed large liberties. "The executive officers became 
eledlive, and so evident were the designs of all parties to 
promote an amicable settlement of the government, that 
Richard Bennet, himself a Commissioner of the Parliament, 
and, moreover, a merchant and a Roundhead, was, on the 
recommendation of the other Commissioners, unanimously 
chosen Governor." Cromwell never made any appointments 
for Virginia; not one Governor acfted under his commission. 
When Bennet retired from office, the Assembly elecfted his 
sirccessor, and Edward Digges, who had before been chosen 
of the Council, and who "had given a signal testimony of 
his fidelity to Virginia and to the Commonwealth of Eng- 
land," received the suffrages. 

In 1666 Bennet commanded the militia of three of the four 
military distridls into which Virginia was divided, with the 
rank of Major- General, and was a member of the Council as 
late as 1674. He owned the plantations of " Weyanoak " 
and "Kicotan," on the James River, and has many dis- 
tinguished descendants in Virginia. 



XXXI. 



EDWARD DIGGES. 

Preside7it of the Cotuicil 

and 

Governor 

Under the Commonwealth of Cromwell. 

March, 1655, to March 13, 1658. 

"Att a Grand Assembly Held at James Citty, March 31, 1655, Or- 
dered the Governor and Conncill be as followeth : Edward Digges, Esqr. , 
Governor, Coll. Wm. Clayborne, Secretary, and next in Council, etc." 

According to Hening, "this is the second eledlion of 
Governor and Council which appears to have been made 
since the existence of the Commonwealth in England." 

Governor Digges took much interest in the manufadlure of 
silk in the Colony, it being found "the most profitable 
comoditie for the countrey," and during his term an adl was 
passed for "ten mulberry trees to be planted for every 100 
acres of land held in fee-simple, and sufficiently fenced and 
tended." Later it was enacted "that what person soever 
shall first make one hundred pounds of wound silke in one 
yeare within this Colloney, shall in his so doing be paid ffive 
thousand pounds of tobacco out of the publique levie." 

Although the cultivation of this industry was at a later date 
abandoned, it is said that part of the coronation robe of 
Charles II. was composed of Virginia silk, sent to him from 
the Colony. This particular mark of favor from the King 
was in acknowledgment of the firmness which the Virginians 
had expressed in the royal cause. 

Governor Digges was a younger son of Sir Dudley Digges, 
of Chilham, County Kent, England, and was born in 1620. 
He died March 15, 1675, and was buried at his seat, " Belle- 
field," about eight miles from Williamsburg, Va. His 
descendants took an a(5live part in the affairs of the Colony 
for many years. 

VIII 10,'-, 



XXXII. 

CAPTAIN SAMUEL MATTHEWS. 
President of the Council under t/ie Coinnwmvealth of 

E^igland. 
March 13, 1657, to January, 1659. 

This was the third election of Governor and Council 
during the Commonwealth of England. The Burgesses 
being elected and returned b}^ the Sheriffs for the several 
plantations, they proceeded to recite as follows : 

March 13th, 1657-8. 
Major John Smith, Speaker. 

"Whereas it appeares by act of Assembly held at James Cittie in May, 
1652, That it was agreed vpon and thought best by the then commissioners 
for the parliament, and the Burgesses of the then assembly. That the right 
of election of all officers of this collony should be and appertaine to the 
Burgesses, the representatives of the people. Now know yee, That wee 
the present Burgesses of this Grand Assembly have accordingly constituted 
and ordained the severall persons vnder written to be the Governour, 
Councill & Commissioners of this country of Virginia vntil the next 
Assembly or vntil the further pleasure of the supreme power in England 
shall be known. 

The Honourable Samuel Matthews, Esq., Governour and Captain- 
General of Virginia, etc., etc. "* 

The right of electing the Governor, it will be seen, con- 
tinued to be exercised by the representatives of the people. 
Samuel Matthews, son of an old planter, was chosen to fill the 
office. From too exalted ideas of his station, he, with the 
Council, became involved in an unequal contest with the 
Assembly by which he had been elected. But it is interest- 
ing to obser\^e in the following extracts (taken from Hening's 
Statutes at Large, Vol. i.) how the spirit of popular liberty 

* See Hening's Statutes at I^arge, Vol. I., pp. 431-2. 

IOC 



CAPTAIN SAMUEL MATTHEWS. 107 

established all its claims and that "the House of Burgesses " 
had a complete triumph.* 

James City, April the ist, 1658. 
The Governour and Councill for many important causes do think fitt 
hereby to declare, That they do now disolve this present Assembly. And 
that the Speaker accordingly do dismiss the Burgesses. 

Samuei. Matthewes. 
W. Claiborne. 
Subscribed, 
Thomas Pettus, 
Obedience Robins, Henrj' Perry, 

John Walker, Nathaniel Bacon, 

Geo: Reade, Ffrancis Willis. 

William Bernard. 



The Answer of the Burgesses to the declaration 
of the Honourable Governour and Coun- 
cill. 

The House humbly presenteth, That the said disolution as the case 
now standeth is not presidentall neither legall according to the lawes, now 
ill force, Therefore wee humbly desire a revocation of the said declaration, 
especially seeing wee doubt not but speedily to finish the present affaires 
to the satisfadtion of your honour and the whole country. 

Subscribed, 

John Smith, Speaker. 
Vpon which transactions being but three monthes , 

xlVOT^lC Otlt) 

absente. It was voted vnanimously. That no Biirgesse 
and if any shall depart, That he shall be censured as a person betraying 
the trust reposed in him by his country, And the remaining to a<5t in all 
things and to all intents and purposes as a whole and entire house. And 
ffurther, That Mr. Speaker signe nothing without the consent of the 
major part of the house. 

Voted further. That an oath of secresy be adfninistred to the Burgesses 
which was done as followeth : 

The Oath. 
You shall sweare that as a Burgesse of this House you shall not either 
diredlly or indirectly repeate nor discover the present or future transac- 
tions, debates or discourses that are now or hereafter shall be transacted or 
debated on in the House to any person or persons whatsoever except to a 
Burgesse of this Assembly now present dureing the time of this present 
session. So help you God and the contents of this Booke. 
This oath taken by all the Burgesses present. 
* Heniiig refers this contest to the session of March, 1657-8. 



108 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

The reply of the houourable the Governour 

and Councill. 

Vpon your assurance of a speedy issue to conclude the a6ls so near 

brought to a confirmation in this Assenibl}-, wee are willing to come to a 

speedy conclusion, And to referrc the dispute of the power of disolving and 

the legality thereof to his Highnesse, the Lord Protestor : 

Subscribed, 

Samueli* Mathewes. 
Wm. Claiborne, Sec. 
Ja: Cittie, April 2d, 1658. 



The Answer of the Burgesses. 
The House is vnanimously of opinion that the answer returned is 
vnsatisfa6tory, and desire with as much earnestnes as the honourable 
Governour and Councill have expressed, a speedy dispatch, and propose 
That the Governour and Councill please to declare. 

The House remaines vndisolved that a speedy period may be putt to 
the publique affaires. 

Subscribed, 

John Smith, Speaker. 
James, Ap: the 2d, 1658. 



The Reply of the Governour and Councill. 
Vpon your promise received of the speedy and happy conclusion, wee 
revoke the declaration for the dissolution of tlie Assembly, and referre the 
dispute of the power of dissolving and the legality thereof to his Highnesse 
the Lord Protc6tor. 

Subscribed, 

Samuel Mathewes. 
Wm. Claiborne, Sec. 

The House vusatisfied with these answers, appointed a comittee to 
draw vp a report for manifestation and vindication of the Assembly's 
power which after presentation to the House to be sent to the Governour 
and Councill. These vnderwritten being appointed the commitee : 

Coll. John Carter, Mr. Warham Horsmendon, Coll. John vSidnc}-, 
Lev't Coll. Thomas Swann, Major Richard Webster, Mr. Jerom Ham, 
Capt. Wm. Michell. 

The same committee is by the House impowered to draw vp all such 
propositions as any way tend to or conccrne the settling the present affaires 
of the country and govenmient. 



The Report of the Comittee nominated for 
vindication and manifestation of the As- 
semblyes power. 
Wee have considered the present constitution of the government 



CAPTAIN SAMUEL MATTHEIVS. 109 

of Virginia and do propose, That wee find by the records The present 
power of government to reside in such persons as shall be impow- 
ercd by the Bnrgesses (the representatives of the people) who are not 
dissolvable by any power now extant in Virginia, but the House of Bur- 
gesses. 

They humbly thinke fitt that the House do propose, 
vSamuel Mathewes, Esquire, to remaine Governour and Capt. Gen '11 
of Virginia, with the full powers of that trust, And that a Couucill be 
nominated, appointed and confirmed by the present BurgevSses convened, 
with the assistance of the Governour for his advice. 



Vpon which Report was drawne vp this Declaration. 

The Burgesses takeing into consideration the many letts and obstruc- 
tions in the affaires of this Assembly and conceiveing that some persons of 
the present councell endeavour by setting vp their own power to destroy 
the apparent power resident only in the burgesses, representatives of the 
people, as is manifest by the records of the Assembly: 

Wee the said Burgesses do declare. That we have in our selves the full 
power of the eledtion and appointment of all officers in this country vntil 
such time as wee shall have order to the contrary from the supreme power 
in England ; All which is evident vpon the Assembly records. 

And for the better manifestation thereof and the present dispatch of 
the affaires of this countrey we declare as followeth : 

That wee are not dissolvable by any power yet extant in Virginia but 
our owne ; That all former election of Governour and Couucill be void 
and null ; That the power of governour for the future shall be conferred on 
Coll. Samuell Mathewes, Esq. who by vs shall be invested with all the just 
rights and priviledges belonging to the Governour and Capt. Generall of 
Virginia, and that a couucill shall be nominated, appointed and confirmed 
by the present burgesses convened (with the advice of the Governour for 
his assistance) ; And that for the future none bee admitted a councellor 
Ijut such who shall be nominated, appointed and confirmed by the house 
of Burgesses as aforesaid, vntill further order from the supreame power in 
England. 

Subscribed, 

John Smith, Speaker. 



By the Grand Assembly. 

These are in the name of his Highnesse the Lord Protedlor to will and 
require you not to a6l or execute any warrant, precept or command 
dire<5led to you from any other power or person then the Speaker of this 
hon'ble. House, whose commands you are hereby required to obey and not 
to decline therefrom vntill further order from vs the Burgesses of this 



no THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

present Grand Assembly, hereof faile not as yon will answer the contrary 
at your perill. Given 2d. Apr. 58. 

Signed 

John Smith, Speak'r. 

Directed to Capt. Robert Ellison, High Sheriff of James City County and 
Serjeant at Armes for this present Grand Assembly. 



It is ordered, That whereas the supreanie power of this covmtry of 
Virginia is by this Grand Assembly declared to be resident in the Bur- 
gesses, the representatives of the people, That in referrence and obedience 
thereto Coll. William Claiborne, late secretarie of state, forthwith sur- 
render and deliver the records of the country into the hands of the 
Speaker of this present Grand Assembly. 

Coll. Claiborne being sent for by the sergeant at armes, there was 
drawen vp the next ensueing order. 

Whereas it hath been ordered by this present Grand Assembl}', That 
Coll. William Claiborne late secretarie of state should deliver, vppon oath, 
all the records concerning this country of Virginia or any perticular mem- 
ber thereof vnto this Grand Assembly, These are to impower & authorize 
Coll. John Carter and Mr. Warham Horsmenden to receive the same in 
the name and behalfe of the aforsaid Grand Assembly, and for such 
records as they shall receive to give the said Coll. Claiborne a full receipt 
and discharge. 



April the 3d, 1658. 

The comittee appointed for manifestation of the countreys power did 
this day by order of the house present to the Governor the forme of the 
oath to be taken by him and the Councill, which by him was approved 
and a list of those he desired to be of his councill presented by him to the 
house. 

The Oath. 

I doe sweare that as Governour and Capt. Gen'U of Virginia, I will, 
from time to time to the best of my vuderstanding and conscience deliver 
my opinion in all cases for the good and wellfare of this plantation of Vir- 
ginia, And I do also swear that as a minister of justice in Virginia, I will, 
to the best of my judgement and conscience, do equall right and justice 
vnto all persons in all causes when I shall bee therevnto called according 
to the knowne laws of England or acts of Assembly which are or shall be 
in force for the time being without favour, affection, partiality or malice 
or any by respect whatsoever ; Neither will I, directly or indirectly give 
councell or advice in any cavxse depending before me. So help me God. 



CAPTAIN SAMUEL MATTHEWS. Ill 

The uames of the Councellors nominated by 
the Governour and approved by the House. 

vS : Coll. Samuell Matthcwes, Esq'r Governour and Capt. Gen'll of Vir- 
ginia. 

Richard Bennett Coll. John West 

S: Coll. Wni. Claiborne, S: Coll. Tho's Pettus 

Secretary of State 

Coll. Hill S: Coll. Obedience Robins 

Coll. Thomas Dew Capt. Henry Perry 

'''■ Coll. Wm. Bernard 

I^c'tt Coll. John Walker. 
, S: Coll. George Reade. 
Coll. Abraham Wood. 
Coll. John Carter. 
Mr. Warham Horsmeuden. 
Le'tt Coll. Anto. EUyotte. 

These 3 last not to be sworne vntill the dissolution of the Assembly. 
These marked in the margent with the letter S : where then sworne 
in the forme expressed, their titles onely changed. 



At a Grand Assembly held at James Cittie, 
March 7, 1658-9. 

Aa I. 

It is enacted and confirmed by the Governour, Council and Burgesses 
of this present Grand Assembly, That the honourable Coll. Samuell 
Mathews, Esquire, Bee the Governour and Capt. Gennerall of Virginia 
for two yeeres ensueing, and then the Grand Assembly to elect a Gov- 
ernour as they shall think fitt, the person elect being then one of the 
Councell ; And it is further enadled. That the present Councell shall be 
the Councell of State, the Assembly reserveing to themselves a just excep- 
tion against any one perticular Councellor : But for the future the Coun- 
cellors to be fixt dureing life except in case of high misdemanors, And of 
this the Grand Assembly to be the onely judge, And it is moreover 
ordained by the authoritie aforesaid. That the Governour shall have 
priviledge to nominate the future councellors, and the Burgesses according 
to tlieir discretion to elecft. And this a6i: to be of force vutil his Highness 
pleasure be further signified. 

On the 3d of September, 1658, the great Cromwell died. 
He passed away ' ' peaceably in his bed at his palace of White- 
hall, and was buried with more than regal pomp in the sep- 
ulchre of our monarchs. " 



112 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Cromwell was one whom even his enemies cannot name wilhonl 
acknowledging his greatness. The farmer of Huntingdon, accustomed 
only to rural occupations, unnoticed till he was more than forty years old, 
engaged in no higher plots than how to improve the returns of his land 
and fill his orchard with choice fruit, of a sudden became the best officer 
in the British army, and the greatest statesman of his time; subverted the 
English constitution, which had been the work of centuries ; held in his 
own grasp the liberties which formed a part of the nature of the English 
people, and cast the kingdoms into a new mould. Religious peace, such 
as England till now has never again seen, flourished under his calm medi- 
ation ; justice found its way even among the remotest Highlands of Scot- 
land ; commerce filled the English marts with prosperous activity ; his 
fleets rode triumphant in the West Indies ; Nova Scotia submitted to his 
orders without a struggle ; the Dutch begged of him for peace as for a 
boon; Ivouis XIV. was humiliated; the Protestants of Piedmont breathed 
their prayers in security. His squadron made sure of Jamaica; he had 
strong thoughts of Hispaniola and Cuba; and, to use his own words, 
resolved "to strive with the Spaniard for the mastery of all those seas." 
The glory of the English was spread throughout the world. "Under the 
tropic was their language spoke." — Bancroft. 

Unmolested by Cromwell in internal affairs, during the 
Protectorate, "the People of Virginia" had really governed 
themselves. Tranquility and a rapid increase of population 
promised a permanent existence to the Colony, and life was 
sweetened and industry quickened by the enjoyment of equal 
franchises. Every officer in the government was chosen, 
directly or indirectly, by the people. 

Gov. Matthews filled his position with honesty and ability, 
and was greatly regretted when he died, in January, 1659. He 
was succeeded by Sir William Berkeley. 



XXXIII. 



SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY. 

Governor. 
March 13, 1659-60, to April 30, 1661. 

Virginia had now so nearly completed her institutions that 
until her final separation from England she made little further 
advance towards freedom. The love of liberty had grown in 
the hearts and lives of the colonists, and the struggling band 
had increased and flourished as they felt ' ' the glorious priv- 
ilege of being independent." The country for which they 
had suffered so much had become dear to them. It was 
theirs through famine, pestilence, and the sword — wrested 
from the grasp of no common foe, and bought by the blood 
of no common sacrifice. 

Thus, at the advent of Sir William Berkeley again to 
office, the Colony was estimated from eight to twelve thousand 
in population, growing rich, free, and in favor with the world. 

It is said by Hening that no portion of the history of 
Virginia has been so palpably misunderstood as that which 
relates to the re-appointment of Sir William Berkeley at this 
time. Colonel Samuel Matthews having died in January, 
1659, the next Assembly, which sat on the 13th of March, 
1659-60, eledled Sir William Berkeley, Governor. The Gov- 
ernors of Virginia during the Commonwealth of England 
were all elecfted by the House of Burgesses, and it was not until 
after the Restoration, which took place May 29, 1660, that 
the word " King" or " Majesty " occurred in the proceedings 
of the Assembly. " Att a Grand Assemblie held at James 
Cittie in Virginia, the nth Oct., 1660, these orders following 
were made in the Government of The Right Hon. Sir William 
Berkeley, his Majesties Governor," etc. 

Berkeley had been re-elecled Governor by the Assembly 

113 



114 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

in Virginia on March 13, 1659-60, and was commissioned to 
adl by Charles II., July 31, 1660. 

The Navigation Act having made the colonists uneasy as 
to a violation of their rights, they sent Governor Berkeley to 
England to protest against its enforcement. 

' ' By the Grand Assembly held at James City 
March 23, 1 660-1. Act I. 
"Whereas the necessity of the country being in danger of the oppres- 
sion company and the losse of onr liberties for want of sitch an agent 
in England as is able to oppose the invaders of our freedomes and truly to 
represent our condition to his sacred majestic enforceth the employing a 
person of quality to present our grievances to his majesty's gracioiis con- 
sideration and endeavour the redresse which the right honorable Sir Wil- 
liam Berkeley his majestyes governor hath been pleased to vindeitake. 
Bee itt therefore enacted that tliere be raysed Ijy the country the some of 
two hundred thousand pounds of tobacco and cask for his the said Sir Wil- 
liam Berkeley's support in his voyage ; and that pajaiient be made thereof 
by the 20th of January in Yorke river and James river to such persons as 
his honor shall appoint and that the secretary of state and speaker of the 
assembly signe a manifesto to the governor of the country's engagement 
for payment thereof. ' ' * 

Whilst Governor Berkeley was absent on this mission, 
Colonel Francis Moryson was elected by the Council to be 
Governor and Captain-General of Virginia. 

During the Commonwealth of England there were four 
Governors appointed under the provisional government of 
Virginia, viz.: Richard Bennet, April, 1652 ; Edward 
Digges, March, 1655 ; Samuel Matthews, March, 1657-8. 

Samuel Matthews was elected March, 1657-8, and at the 
same session, a contest arising between the Governor and 
Council and the House of Burgesses, as to the constitutional 
power of dissolving the Assembly, the Burgesses declared 
all former elections of Governor and Council void and null, 
but, immediately after, re-elected Matthews. By the first act 
of March, 1658-9 Matthews was again elected, and by the 
second act of March, 1659-60, Sir William Berkeley was 
re-elected by the Assembly in Virginia, and was commissioned 
to act by Charles II., July 31, 1660. Thus the power to 
appoint the Governors reverted to the Crown of England. 

♦Hening's Statutes at Large, Vol. II., page 17. 



XXXIV. 

COLONEL FRANCIS MORYSON, OR MOR- 
RISON. 

Deputy or LiciUcnant-Govcrnor. 

March 23, 1661, to December 23, 1662. 

Colonel Mory,son had arrived in the Colony in the au- 
tumn of 1649. He was a loyalist and as such received a 
warm welcome from Sir William Berkeley, who, it is said, 
gave Moryson the command of the fort at Point Comfort. 
He became a member of the Council, was Speaker of the 
House of Burgesses in 1656, and was finally selecfled Deputy- 
Governor during Sir William Berkeley's absence in England. 

During Colonel Moryson's term of office, at a Grand As- 
sembly held at James City, March 23, 1661-62, the whole 
body of the laws of the Colony was reviewed and a copy sent 
to England to Sir William Berkeley, "to procure his Majesty's 
royal confirmation." These A(5ls, numbering 142, began 
with the following : 

Act I. 

^^ Bee at enacted, for the advancement of Gods glory, and the more 
decent celebration of his divine ordinances, that there be a church decently 
built in each parish of this country, unles any parish as now setled by 
reason of the fewnes or poverty of the inhabitants be incapable of sus- 
teyning soe greate a charge, in which case it is enadled that such parishes 
shall be joyned to the next greate parish, of the same county, and that a 
chappell of ease be built, in such places, at the particular charge of that 
place." 

Thus it will be seen that all through the history of the 
early settlement of this country a reverence for the Church 
is constantly recognized, and though this " outward and vis- 
ible sign ' ' may not always have evidenced ' ' an inward and 
spiritual grace," still it is edifying to observe that God was 



116 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

acknowledged first in all the temporal affairs of the first Vir- 
ginians. Bishop Meade relates, in connedlion with the Parish 
of James City, that there exists in the Library of the Theo- 
logical Seminary of Virginia ' ' a large silver chalice and 
paten, with the inscription on each, 

" Ex Dono Jacobi Morrison Armigeri A D 1661." 

Also a silver alms-basin with the inscription, " For the use 
of James City Parish Church." It is an interesting specu- 
lation as to whether Governor Moryson had any connedlion 
wdth these gifts. 

Colonel Moryson, at the expiration of his term as Gov- 
ernor, was sent to England as the agent of the Colony, with 
an annual salary of ^200. Whether he ever returned to Vir- 
ginia is not recorded, but he left substantial tokens with the 
people he had served, of great fidelity to their welfare. 



XXXV. 



SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY. 

Governor. 
December 23, 1662, to April 27, 1677. 

Att a Grand Assemblie, Holdeu at James Cittie by prorogatiou from 
the twentie third of March, 1660, to the twentie third of March 1661 ; aud 
thence to the twentie third of December 1662, in the fourteenth year of the 
raigne of our soveraigne Lord, Charles the Second, by the grace of God, of 
England, Scotland, France aud Ireland, King, defender of the faith, etc. 
To Uie glorie of Almightie God and the publique good of this his Majesties 
colonic of Virginia : 

These following acts were made and established. 

The Honorable Sir William Berkeley 
Knt. Govenor.* 

By the foregoing it will be seen that Governor Berkeley 
now entered upon his fourth term of ofHce in Virginia. He 
had fostered the Colony in its infancy, and during his rule, 
though it had seen many changes, it had steadily advanced 
in the path of prosperity. But clouds were rising to burst 
in fury on the venerable Governor's path. The low price of 
tobacco, and the ill-treatment of the planters in the exchange 
of goods for it ; the splitting of the Colony into proprietaries, 
contrary to the original charters, the heavy restraints and 
burdens laid upon their trade by Act of Parliament, and 
last, though not least, the troubles with the unsleeping Indian 
foe ; all these wrongs stirred the souls of many Virginia 
Fathers, who were soon to show their discontent in that 
historic period known as "Bacon's Rebellion." This suf- 
fering time, which cost much blood and treasure, which broke 
up the local government for a time, and laid the first-born city 

* Ileniny's Statutes at I<arge, Vol. II., p. 163. 

117 



118 THE COl'ERNORS OF VI RC INI A. 

of the Western Wild in ashes, was in the end a blessing to 
the people. Nathaniel Bacon perished, but not before he had, 
by valor unsurpassed, defied tyrannic power and destroj^ed 
forever, the Indian Empire in Virginia. 

"Bacon's Quarter Branch" and "Bloody Run" have 
their own imperishable story. 

But around the death of Nathaniel Bacon mystery has 
always hung. No circumstantial details of the event have been 
preserved, and though historians have ascribed his untimely 
"taking off" to cold and great fatigue from arduous duties, 
still there has ever lurked suspicion that he fell by the hand 
of an assassin employed by the government. When we con- 
sider the instructions of the King to Governor Berkeley, that 
Bacon was to be taken at all hazards, that both force and 
design were to be employed, it gives a terrible significance to 
the following words, Act I., General Assemblie, June 8, 1680: 
" until it pleased the Almighty to send him, the said Bacon, 
an infamous and exemplary deaths * 

There were two persons living at this time who bore the 
name of Nathaniel Bacon. The elder was a friend and fol- 
lower of Governor Berkeley ; the younger was the heroic spirit 
who headed the Rebellion. These two men were cousins, 
but this did not prevent the elder Bacon from persecuting to 
"the bitter end" the men whom he termed "rebels." 

Yet more bloody than Bloody Run was Berkeley's ven- 
geance upon the men who had driven him from his citadel a 
refugee and had refused obedience to his arbitrary laws. His 
thirst for blood increased with what it fed on, and in the 
language of an ancient Burgess, " He would have hanged half 
the country if he had been let alone." The King himself, 
horrified at the cruelty of Berkeley, exclaimed, ' ' That old fool 
has hanged more men in that naked country than I have done 
here for the murder of my father." 

So closed in deep dishonor a career which opened with such 
fair promises of usefulness and virtuous example. Berkeley 
had been loved and venerated for many years, but he was not 

* Heuing's Statutes at Large, Vol. II., p. 460. 



SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY. 119 

born for trial, and when the supreme hour broke upon him 
he greatly fell ! 

Scorned and execrated in Virginia, he turned to his King 
and to his native land for recognition and for favor. The one 
refused him admittance to the Court, and in the other was 
no one found to do the old man reverence. Crushed, yet proud, 
he turned aside to lay him down and die. Let us devoutl)^ 
hope, that standing before the Great and Last Tribunal, he 
met with Divine compassion, even though when ' ' clothed with 
a little, brief authority " upon earth he had been unmindful of 
the sweet promise to the merciful, and had forgotten that 
gentlest Virtue, which 

' ' becomes 
The throued mouarch better than his crowu." 



XXXVI. 



SIR HERBERT JEFFRIES. 

Lieuteitmit-Governor. 
April 27, 1677, to December 30, 1678. 

Sir Herbert Jeffries was appointed lyieutenant-Gover- 
nor of Virginia, and one of the commissioners for inquiring into 
the state of the Colony, in 1676. He assumed the adminis- 
tration on the return of Sir William Berkeley to England, 
and exerted himself wisely and well to restore peace to a dis- 
tradted country. He made a treaty with the Indians of the 
West, by which each town agreed to pay three arrows for 
their land and twenty beaver skins annually for protedlion. 
But Jeffries did not live to see the accomplishment of his ju- 
dicious plans. He died in 1678, when the government de- 
volved upon Sir Henry Chicheley. 

It is a matter of interest to note that the last Assembly 
held by Governor Berkeley " Begunne at Green Spring," 
and that the Grand Assembly, held by Governor Jeffries, 
Oct. 10, 1677, "Begunne at Middle Plantation, Att the 
house of Capt. Otho Thorpe." 

Green Spring was Governor Berkeley's residence, which 
he had built himself only a few miles from James City, and 
Middle Plantation was afterwards called Williamsburg. This 
change of venue was of course the result of the burning of 
James City. 



l:io 



XXXVII 



SIR HENRY CHICHELEY. 

Deputy- Governor. 

December 30, 1678, to May 10, 1680. 

In the year 1666 the vestry of lyancaster Parish, Virginia, 
agreed to build a church about midway the parish, to be called 
Christ Church, the glass and iron to be gotten from England. 
Here Sir Henry Chicheley served as vestryman, and here his 
mortal part was buried. Says Bishop Meade, in 1872 : 

"And what has become of the old Mother Church — the Great Church/^ 
as she is styled in her journal — standing in view of the wide Rappahaii 
nock, midway between Rosegill and Brandon? More perhaps than fifW 
years ago it was deserted. Its roof decayed and fell in. Everything 
within it returned to its native dust. But nature abhors a vacuum. A 
sycamore tree sprang up within its walls. All know the rapidity of tlia^ 
tree's growth. It filled the void. Its boughs soon rose above and over- 
spread the walls. In the year 1840, when it pleased God to put it into the 
hearts of some, in whom the spirit of old Virginia Episcopalians still 
remained, to seek the revival of the Church's dry bones in Middlesex, 
that huge, overspreading tree must first be removed piece-meal from the 
house, and the rich mould of fifty years' accumulation, to the depth of 
two feet, must be dug up before the chancel floor and the stone aisles could 
be reached. The walls — faithful workmanship of other days — were unin- 
jured, and may still remain while generations of frail modern stru6lurcs 
pass away. The house is now one of our best country churches. The 
graves of our ancestors are all around it. In scattered fragments some of 
the tombstones lie ; others, too substantial to be broken, too heavy to be 
borne away, now plainly tell whose remains are protecfted by them." 

In 1656 Sir Henry Chicheley was a Burgess from Lan- 
caster County, and in 1674 he was a member of the Council. 
In March, 1676, he was made commander of the forces to be 
sent against the Indians, but Sir William Berkeley disbanded 
them before they entered upon duty. Upon the death of 
Governor Jeffries, Sir Henry Chicheley became Deputy- 

IX 131 



122 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

Governor, under a commission dated February 28, 1674, and 
served until the arrival of Lord Culpeper, March 10, 1680; 
but he continued to adt as Deputy-Governor after the arrival 
of Lord Culpeper, and during his absence from the govern- 
ment, (which was frequently the case) until 1683. 

Sir Henry Chicheley took very energetic measures for the 
protecftion of the colonists against the encroachments of the 
Indians, causing that " fower houses for stores or garrisons 
be eredted and built at the heads of the ffower greate rivers," 
namely, the Potomac, Rappahannock, Mattapony, and James. 
By these and other measures for the public weal, Sir Henry 
greatly ingratiated himself in public favor. He died about 
1692, and was buried, as before stated, in the " Mother 
Church," Middlesex County, Virginia. 



XXXVIII. 

THOMAS, LORD CULPEPBR. 

(baron of thorsway.) 

Go7Jernor and Captain-General. 

May lo, 1680, to September 17, 1683. 

All accounts agree in describing the situation of Virginia 
during lyord Culpeper's administration as one of extreme 
suffering. Charles II. had in 1673, with lavish prodigality, 
given to two of his favorite courtiers, Lord Culpeper and the 
Earl of Arlington, " all the dominion of land and water called 
Virginia, for the term of thirty-one years." This grant gave 
rise to the ist Adl of September, 1674, for an address to the 
King on the subjedl. Three agents were appointed, and the 
zeal and ability with which they prosecuted their mission de- 
served a better result. The King consented to a new charter 
confirming all the essential stipulations insisted on, and 
twice ordered the instrument to be prepared, but, after empt)^ 
promises, he eventually gave a "miserable skeleton" con- 
taining little more than a declaration of the dependence of the 
Colony on the Crown of England. 

Thus did Charles II. sow the seeds of discontent which 
finally resulted in the separation of the Colonies from the 
mother country. This grant to Culpeper was unjust and op- 
pressive, as it included lands which had been long cultivated 
by others; and, about two years after the patent was issued, 
he, the better to "put in his thumb, and take out a plum," 
obtained the appointment of Governor of Virginia for life. 
As such, he was proclaimed .soon after Berkeley's departure. 
But he remained in England, and not until reproved by the 
King did he set sail for Virginia ; here he arrived early in 
1680. Having taken the oath of office at Jamestown, he 
commenced a course of personal aggrandizement ; the Gov- 

123 



124 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

ernor's salary was doubled ; a further grant was made for 
house rent ; perquisites of every kind were sought for and in- 
creased ; nay, the soldiers of the Colony were defrauded of a 
part of their pay by an arbitrary change in the value of cur- 
rent coin. He procured an Adl of Assembly which "author- 
ized a perpetual export duty of two shillings a hogshead on 
tobacco, and granted the proceeds for the support of govern- 
ment, to be accounted for, not to the Assembly, but to the 
King." Besides all this, Lord Culpeper had received an im- 
mense grant of land from the King in what is known as the 
Northern Neck of Virginia, which embraced the territory lying 
between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers back as far as 
the Blue Ridge Mountains. Having employed his time profit- 
ably for himself, and balefully for Virginia, from May until 
August, he then returned to England to enjoy the fruits of 
his labors, and left Sir Henry Chicheley as Deputy-Governor 
of the Colony. After Culpeper' s departure, discontent grew 
widespread among the planters at a law that had been passed, 
compelling them to load their tobacco at certain specified 
places along the river banks. For many years Jamestown 
was the only town in the Colony, and after it was burned 
there was a great necessity for some fixed places of trade. In 
order to secure the building of towns this A(5l was passed. 
But the planters, accustomed now to load the vessels at their 
own plantations, resisted the measure, and in Gloucester 
County some of them adlually destroyed their entire crop, 
rather than be pressed to dispose of it in a way that was 
contrary to their wishes. Others followed their example and 
open rebellion to the law was threatened. The King com- 
pelled lyord Culpeper to return to Virginia, and he, vexed at 
leaving the pleasures of London, determined to make short 
work of the difficulty. He soon filled the jails with prisoners, 
hung six men for this trifling offence, proclaimed the pen- 
alty oi death against all "plant cutters," and, by this cruel 
course, ended the Tobacco Rebellion. Culpeper returned to 
England, September 17, 1683, and left Nicholas Spencer as 
the executive of the Colony. 

For this second breach of faith in quitting his government. 



THOMAS, LORD CULPEPER. 135 

in violation of orders, he was arrested immediately on his ar- 
rival in England. His patent was for life, but it was rendered 
void by a process of law, not so much from regard to colonial 
liberties as to recover a prerogative for the Crown. On July 
25, 1684, Virginia became again a royal province. 

As an evidence of lyord Culpeper's hostility to the intro- 
duction of printing into the Colony, the following extradl is 
made from a MS. of unquestionable authority : 

"Feb. 2ist, 1682. John Buckner called before the Lord Culpepcr and 
his council for printing the laws of 1680, without his Excelleucie's licence, 
and he and the printer ordered to enter into bond in ^100, not to print 
anything thereafter until his Majestie's pleasure should be known."* 

This step rivals Sir William Berkeley's views, who 
thought that the more profoundly ignorant the colonists were 
kept, the better subjedls they were for slavery. 

Lord Culpeper died in 1719, and left not a very fragrant 
memory in the Ancient Dominion. 

*Bland MS., Ga., 498. 



XXXIX. 

NICHOLAS SPENCER. 

President of the Council. 
September 17, 1683, to April 16, 1684. 

Upon the departure of lyord Culpeper for England, he 
appointed Nicholas Spencer, President of the Council. The 
first patent signed by Nicholas Spencer, as President, is dated 
the 17th of September, 1683. He continued in office *intil 
the 1 6th of April, 1684, on which day a commission to 
Francis, Lord Howard, dated 28th September, 35 Car. 1 1 
(1683), was read. 

Nicholas Spencer was said to have been a kinsman of 
Lord Culpeper. In June, 1666, he was a member of the House 
of Burgesses, and in Odlober, 1686, he was Secretary of the 
Colony, which in 1681 contained about 14,000 " tithables, or 
working hands," and the House of Burgesses consisted of 
forty-one members. At this time it was said in relation to 
the Indians and Tobacco: "We are at peace with all ; at 
least, in war with none. But that which bids fair to be the 
speedy and certain undoing of this Colony, is the low or 
rather no price of the only producft of our lands, and our only 
commodity, tobacco ; for the market is overstocked and every 
crop overstocks it more. Our thriving is our undoing, and 
our buying of blacks hath extremelj' contributed thereto, by 
making more tobacco. We are too many for that, and too 
few for anvthinof else." 



126 



XL. 



FRANCIS, LORD HOWARD. 

(baron EFFINGHAM.) 

Lietitenant-Goz>ey}ior. 
April 1 6, 1684, to Odlober 20, 1688. 

Lord Effingham opened his career in Virginia with 
instrudtions from England ' ' to allow no person to use a print- 
ing press on any occasion whatsoever. ' ' This was ' ' agreeably 
to the prayers of Sir W. Berkeley." Being equally as 
a/aricious as lyord Culpeper, he soon, by his overbearing 
n.easures, made himself generally detested. Trouble with 
the Indians again assailing the tranquility of the Colony, 
Lord Effingham went to Albany, and there, with the Gov- 
ernor of New York, met the chiefs of the Five Nations and 
effecfled with them a Treaty of Peace. The.se Five Nations, 
the Oneidas, Onondagos, Cayugas, Mohawks, and Senecas, 
had absorbed all the other Indians in the country, and 
formed a very powerful combination. 

During Effingham's absence in New York, Nathaniel 
Bacon, Senior, President of the Council, assumed his duties. 
' Lord Howard was not present in the General Court after 
22d April, 1687, and then, Nathaniel Bacon was President; 
but Lord Howard did not leave the country, for he 
signed patents till 20th 0(ftober, 1688." At this time he 
embarked for England, being recalled at the request of the 
colonists. His course in Virginia had been cruel and tyran- 
nical, and he perverted the noble opportunities of his po.sition 
to personal emolument and benefit. He was the son and 
heir of Sir Charles Howard, and succeeded to his title in 
16S1. He died in England in 1694. 



XLl. 

NATHANIEL BACON. 

President of the Council. 

October 20, 1688, to October 16, 1690. 

" Nathaniki. Bacon, a near kinsman of him who was 
called 'The Rebel,' and who was high in office during the 
period of the rebellion, as he was before and after, married 
Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Kingswell, of 
James City County. His residence was on King's Creek, 
near York River and not far from Williamsburg." Near the 
bank of this river, on a tombstone, the following inscription 
may be seen, viz.: " Here lyeth the body of Elizabeth, wife 
of the Honourable Nathaniel Bacon, who departed this life 
the second da}' of November, one thousand six hundred and 
ninety-one, in the sixty-seventh year of her age. ' ' Nathaniel 
Bacon's tombstone is said by Bishop Meade to lie " in a field 
on Dr. Tinsley's farm," near Williamsburg, at which point 
it is supposed that Bacon had another residence. Nathaniel 
Bacon was long prominent in public affairs, having been among 
other offices of trust, a member of the Council for over forty 
years. When Eord Effingham returned to England in Odlc- 
ber, 1688, Bacon, as President of the Council, became the 
Adling Governor of Virginia, until the arrival of Francis 
Nicholson, Ocflober 16, 1690. 

Bacon must have been adtive in Church as well as State, as 
it was announced in the Virginia Gazette for March, 1746, that 
\.\\e. plate given by Colonel Nathaniel Bacon to York-Hampton 
parish had been stolen. Hening narrates that "Nathaniel 
Bacon continued President all April Court 1690 : and the i6th 
of Odlober, 1690, Francis Nicholson, Esquire, lyieutenant- 
Governor, was present." 

128 



NATHANIEL BACON. 139 

Many changes meanwhile had taken place in England. 
Charles II. died on the i6th February, 1685, and was suc- 
ceeded by his brother, James II. King James II. abdicated 
the throne, 23d December, 1688, and William, Prince of 
Orange, and Mary, the daughter of James, were proclaimed 
Joint-sovereigns of England. 

It was during the short presidency of Colonel Bacon, that 
the projedl for a college was first agreed upon and approved 
by the President and Council of Virginia, and the charter 
was granted on the 8th February, 1692, in the fourth year of the 
reign of William and Mary. This venerable institution of 
learning, called in honor of them, has ever since been inter- 
woven with the annals of Virginia. Nathaniel Bacon died 
March 16, 1693, and as he left no children bequeathed his 
estate to his niece, Abigail Smith, who married Major Lewis 
Burwell. 



XLII. 

SIR FRANCIS NICHOLSON. 

Liaitenaiit- Governor. 
Odtober i6, 1690, to Odlober 16, 1693. 

Although Effingham had been recalled to England, 
Odlober 20, 1688, Nicholson was appointed lyieutenant- 
Governor tinder hmi, and in svich capacity arrived in the 
Colony in 1690. In this same year the name of Sir Lionel 
Copley appears as Governor of Virginia. This, however, is 
not substantiated, though we know that Sir Lionel arrived in 
1692 in Maryland with a royal commission, during the 
Catholic and Protestant troubles there. He dissolved the 
convention, assumed the government, convened an Assem- 
bly, whose first a(5l was to recognize as Sovereigns, William 
and Mary of England. 

Sir Francis Nicholson, having relieved President Nathan- 
iel Bacon in Virginia, held the reins of government until 
Odlober 16, 1693, when he was, in his turn, relieved bj' Sir 
Edmund Andros, Governor-in-Chief. Nicholson was by pro- 
fession a soldier, and had been Lieutenant- Governor of New 
York under Andros, and at the head of the administration 
from 1687 to 1689. During the early part of his administra- 
tion in Virginia he was very popular, as he endeavored to 
ingratiate himself in public favor. He instituted athletic 
games, and offered prizes in riding, running, shooting, wres- 
tling, and fencing. He also proposed the establishment of a 
post-office, and had the great honor of securing the charter of 
the first college in the oldest Colony in the New World. The 
preamble states that ' ' to the end that the Church of Virginia 
may be furnished with a Seminary of Ministers of the Gospel, 
and that the youth may be piously educated in good letters 
and manners, and that the Christian Faith may be propagated 



SIR FRAA^CIS NICHOLSON. 131 

among the Western Indians, to the glorj^ of Ahnight}- God," 
etc. 

Francis Nicholson and seventeen other persons, nominated 
and appointed by tlie Assembl}^ were confirmed as Trustees, 
etc. In grateful acknowledgment of the royal patronage and 
l^enefacflion, the college was called " William and Mary." 



XLIII. 

SIR EDMUND ANDROS. 

Governor'. 

Odlober i6, 1693, to December 9, i6g8. 

Lord Effingham being removed from the government 
of Virginia, Sir Edmund Andros, of obnoxious memory in 
New England, was appointed Governor in his stead. Andros 
is generally accepted as having been not a bad Governor for 
Virginia, but in consideration of his previous lawless career 
in New England, his advancement occasioned the amazement 
of the public. He was born in London, December 6, 1637, 
and arrived in the Colony of Virginia, 0(51 ober 16, 1693. He 
had been, at an earlier period, appointed Governor of New 
York, in 1674, and continued in that office until 1682. In 
December, 1686, he arrived at Boston with a commission from 
King James for the government of New England. Here his 
administration was most tyrannical and oppressive. The 
press was restrained, and exorbitant taxes levied. It was 
pretended that all titles to land were destroyed, and the farm- 
ers were obliged to take new patents, for which they paid 
large fees. He prohibited marriage unless celebrated by 
Ministers of the Church of England, and at that time there 
was said to be but one Episcopal clergyman in the country ; 
and by this and various other a(5ts of lawless usurpation, he 
inflamed the spirits of the people whom he governed. Ani- 
mated with the love of liberty which they had bought in the 
wilds of America, on the morning of April 18, 1689, the inhab- 
itants of Boston took up arms. The people poured in from the 
country, and the Governor, with about fifty of his obnoxious 
followers, was seized and confined. The old magistrates were 
restored, and the next month the joyful news of the Revolution 
in England reached this country, quieting all apprehensions for 

132 



S//^ EDMUND ANDROS. 1:33 

the consequences of what had been done. After having been 
kept at the castle a prisoner until the February following, Sir 
Edmund was sent to Engjland for trial. The government 
failed to censure him, and in 1692 he was appointed Governor 
of Virginia. 

Before he assumed this ofhce. Sir Edmund had seen 
a good deal of military and civil service in England and 
in New England, and had, so to speak, "sowed his wild 
oats ' ' when he took charge of the government of the Ancient 
Dominion. During his administration, William and Mary 
College was established, an A6t was passed by the General 
Assembly ascertaining the place for its eredlion, and also an 
A(5l laying an imposition upon ' ' skins and furs ' ' for its better 
support. 

Governor Andros had a great love of order, and to his 
care the historical inquirer is indebted for the preservation of 
the early papers of Virginia. He went into the public reposi- 
tories of official documents, and finding them in confusion — 
torn, soiled, and neglecfled — he ordered steps to be taken for 
their re-arrangement and better presei'vation. He encouraged 
manufadlures, suggested the cultivation of cotton, and stimu- 
lated the life of the Colony by his own eager and industrious 
spirit. Unhappily, he fell into strife with James Blair, Presi- 
dent of William and Mary College, which resulted in the 
removal of Andros from ofhce. 

During the term of Andros, an A(5t was passed appointing 
Rangers at the heads of the four great rivers in Virginia. 
These were to consist of one lieutenant, eleven soldiers, and 
two Indians, to be well furnished with horses and arms, to be 
called Rangers, and to be constantly on duty. Also, in 1695, 
the General Assembly of Virginia passed ' ' An A(5t impower- 
ing the Governor, with the advice of the Councell, to apply 
five hundred pounds sterling, out of the imposition of liquors, 
raised by this Assembly, to the assistance and preservation of 
New York, if found necessary." This step was taken at a 
time when the peace of New York was threatened by internal 
dissensions between the Governor and his Assembly, and is 
an interesting piece of history to recall in the close of the 
nineteenth century. 



134 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Sir Edmund Andros died in London, February, 17 14, at 
an advanced age, and is, perhaps, best recolle(5led in the 
annals of the United States as the man who demanded, at the 
head of his troops, the charter of Conne(5licut, which was 
hidden from him in the famous oak at Hartford, Conn. 



XLIV. 



GEORGE HAMILTON DOUGLAS. 

(EARL OF ORKNEY.) 

Governor-in- Chief. 

1697-1737. 
George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, was fifth son of 
Lord Selkirk. He entered the army earl3^ and distinguished 
himself at the battle of the Boyne and on other occasions, for 
which he was raised to the peerage, and created by William 
III. Earl of Orkney, in consideration of his gallantry. His 
valor was equally displayed under Marlborough at Blenheim 
and Malplaquet. In 1697 he was appointed Governor-in- 
Chief of Virginia, and enjoyed the honor and emoluments of 
the position for forty years, although the adlual condudl of the 
government was delegated to others. Out of an annual salary 
of ^2000 he received ^"i 200, though he never once set foot upon 
the soil of Virginia. But he was as great a favorite of Queen 
Anne as he had been of William III. She bestowed honors 
upon him, and he served with distindtion in the wars of her 
reign. He was made a Major-General and a Knight of the 
Thistle, and as one of the sixteen peers of Scotland he was a 
member of the House of Lords for many years. He married 
in 1695, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, and left 
descendants. He died January 29, 1737, and was succeeded 
as Governor-in-Chief of Virginia by the Earl of Albemarle. 



135 



XLV. 



SIPv FRANCIS NICHOLSON. 

Lieiitenant- Governor. 
December 9, 1698, to August 15, 1705. 

Sir Francis Nicholson, having served a term as Gov- 
ernor of Maryland, was for a second time appointed to the 
administration of affairs in Virginia. One of his earliest 
measures was to remove the seat of government from James- 
town to "Middle Plantation," afterwards called, "Williams- 
burg." An instrudlive provision in Adl II. of his first Assem- 
bly, April 27, 1699, reads as follows: " If any money, meat, 
drink, or provision be given or promised to a voter, in order to 
be eledled, the eledlion declared void. ' ' The XIV. Acft of this 
same Assembly was ' ' diredting the building the Capitoll and 
the City of Williamsbiirg." Governor Nicholson did much 
to encourage the immigration of settlers. They had a certain 
quantity of land allotted to them, were to be exempt from 
taxes or levies for twenty years, and from military service 
except in their own defense. But in the midst of his plans 
for the benefit of the Colony he became involved unpleasantly 
with the clergy, and upon their complaint he was recalled to 
England, and was succeeded August 15, 1705, by Edward 
Nott. After this, Nicholson saw some military service ; was 
Governor of Nova Scotia for five years, was knighted, and 
served as Governor of South Carolina from 1721 to 1725. 
On his return to England he was made Lieutenant- General. 
He died in London, March 5, 1728, and his career may be 
said to have been a distinguished one. 

During Governor Nicholson's administration in Virginia, 
King William III. of England died, in his 52d year, and was 
succeeded by Anne, Princess of Denmark, daughter of James 
II. 

136 



XLVI. 



EDWARD NOTT. 

Lieutenant-Governor . 

August 15, 1705, to August, 1706. 

Edward Nott succeeded Governor Nicholson, and 
arrived in the Colony in August, 1705. He died in August, 
1706, and although he was in office one year only, he enjoyed 
the esteem and affecSlion of the people in the highest degree. 
In some measure he was subordinate to the Earl of Orkney, 
but his official adls were always for the benefit of the Colony 
over which he presided. In the first year of his government 
William and Mary College was burnt to the ground. The 
building was first modeled by Sir Christopher Wren ; it was 
afterwards rebuilt by the ingenious direction of Governor 
Spotswood. 

During Governor Nott's administration an Act was passed 
' ' dire(5ling the building an house for the Governor of this 
Colony and dominion," appropriating land for that purpose, 
stating dimensions and materials for house, and authorizing 
the Governor to draw on the Treasurer for the sum of ^3000. 
An A(ft also was passed at this time, continuing the Adl di- 
recting the building of the Capitol and City of Williamsburg at 
Middle Plantation. The specifications of this Act are very 
interesting, when in the light of later days we review the 
plans laid for the Capitol of Virginia. Special provision was 
also made now for the French refugees, whose settlement was 
above the Falls of James River, and their parish was known 
as " King William Parish in the County of Henrico." 

Virginia in 1703 contained 60,606 souls, not including 
the French refugees, and it numbered 25 counties. Such 
had been the outgrowth of the landing of 1606, nearly one 
hundred years before. 

X 137 



138 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Governor Nott died in Virginia August 23, 1706, and was, 
buried in the churchyard of Old Bruton Church, in Williams- 
burg. In the graveyard surrounding the Old Church at 
Williamsburg, Bruton Parish, Virginia, the following inscrip- 
tion was found on a time-worn slab : 

" Under tliis marble rest y'' ashes of his excellency, Edward Nott, late 
Governor of this Colony, who, in his private character, was a good Chris- 
tian, and in his public, a good Governor. He was a lover of mankind, 
and bonntiful to his friends. By the prudence and jvistice of his adminis- 
tration he was deservedly esteemed a public blessing while he lived, and 
when he died it was a public calamity. He departed this life the 23d day 
of August, 1706, aged 49 years. In grateful remembrance of whose many 
virtues, the General Assembly of this Colony have erected this monument." 



XLVII. 



EDMUND JENINGS. 

President of the Council. 
August, 1706, to June 23, 1710. 

Upon the untimely death of Governor Nott, Edmund 
Jenings, then President of the Council, succeeded to the 
administration of the government, and remained in olhce 
until the accession of Lieutenant-Governor Spotswood, June 
23, 1 710. The Colony at this period enjoyed tranquility and 
increasing prosperity. The safeguard of the liberties of Vir- 
ginia la}^ in the individual freedom of mind which was the 
fruit of independent and .somewhat isolated living. In 
seclusion men thought for themselves, and "pernicious 
notions, fatal to the royal prerogative, were improving daily." 
From the time of Bacon's Rebellion, Virginia had known only 
the undisturbed blessings of peace, and with steady advance 
she was becoming stronger and stronger in her own individ- 
uality. 

Governor Jenings was prominent in the affairs of Virginia 
for many years, first as Attorney-General of the Colony, in 
1684, and afterwards in various important positions. He 
married Frances, daughter of Henry Corbin, and his descend, 
ants are among some of the most distinguished families in 
the Old Dominion. 



15? 



XLVIII. 



ROBERT HUNTER. 

Lieutena7it-Gover?tor. 
April 4, 1707. 

Robert Hunter on his voyage to Virginia to assume 
the reins of government, was captured by the French, who 
were then at war with England. He was taken a prisoner 
to Paris, and never adled as executive under this commission. 
The vellum document conveying his authority is still pre- 
served among the archives of the Virginia Historical Society. 

In 1 7 10, Hunter was made Governor of New York, and 
arrived in that Colony with 2700 expatriated Palatines. He 
returned to England in 17 19, but on the accession of George 
II. he was re-instated in the government of New York and 
New Jersey. In 1728 he was appointed Governor of Jamaica, 
and died there, 31st March, 1734. His epitaph, in elegant 
L/atin, was written by the Rev. Mr. Flemming. 

Robert Hunter was the author of the famous ' ' Letter on 
Enthusiasm," attributed by some to Swift, arid by others to 
Shaftesbury; he also wrote a farce entitled " Androboros." 



140 



XLIX. 



ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD. 

Lieutenant-Governor. 

June 23, 1710, to September 27, 1722. 
We now approach a very interesting period in the history 
of the Virginia Colony. Up to this time, both Governors and 
people had been content with the territorial restrictions 
which hostile Indians on the border, and multiplied difficul- 
ties at home had enforced. They knew nothing of the coun- 
try which lay hidden by that billowy range of mountains 
which ever on the sunset sky would trace suggestions of a 
great Beyond. It had been a capital maxim of the French in 
their American policy, to conceal all knowledge of the coun- 
try between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi 
River, so that the English knew only such uncertain accounts 
as had been given by straggling travelers and by Indians. 
Yet now, the hour had struck when these mountains were no 
longer to be a barrier to advancing civilization, but rather, 
"a stepping-stone to higher things." On June 23, 17 10, 
there arrived in the Colony a man whose coming marked a 
new era in its history. Colonel Alexander Spotswood had 
been appointed Lieutenant-Governor to George Hamilton, 
Earl of Orkney, the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of 
Virginia. He was a man of uncommon enterprise and public 
spirit, a friend to learning and to religion. He came of a 
long line of distinguished ancestry and was a noble son of 
noble sires. His great-grandfather was John Spotswood, 
Archbishop of St. Andrew's and author of the "History of 
the Church of Scotland" ; his grandfather was Robert Spots- 
wood, Lord President of the College of Justice, and author of 
the " Pracflicks of the Laws of Scotland." Sir Walter Scott 
narrates that this Robert Spotswood (who was one of the 

141 



142 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

eight eminent lawyers executed by the Parliament of Scot- 
land, which consisted wholly of Covenanters), while at pri- 
vate prayer on the scaffold, was interrupted by the Presbyte- 
rian minister in attendance and asked if he did not desire his 
prayers and those of the people. Sir Robert replied, that he 
earnestly desired the prayers of the people, but not those of 
the preacher, for that, in his opinion, God had expressed his 
displeasure against Scotland by sending a lying spirit into 
the mouths of the prophets. Governor Spotswood's father 
was Dr. Robert Spotswood, physician to the Governor of 
Tangier, an English Colony in Africa. His mother was 
the widow, Catherine Elliott, when she married Dr. Spots- 
wood. The portrait of Mrs. Catherine Elliott's son, Gen- 
eral Elliott, now hangs in the State Library at Richmond, 
Virginia. Alexander Spotswood was the only son of Robert 
and Catherine Spotswood. He was born in Tangier in 
in 1676 ; was reared among soldiers and educated for a military 
life. He became aide to the Duke of Marlborough, and was 
badly wounded in the breast at the battle of Blenheim. 
Exchanging, however, now, the hardships and honors of 
military life in the Old World, for the high position of 
lyieutenant-Governor of Virginia, he turned the current of his 
energies to the promotion of her welfare. His soldierly 
experience and genius enabled him to wield the militia with 
great effedt against the hostile Indians, and his interest in 
matters civil and religious is evidenced by many adls during 
his administration. 

A number of German Protestants having about this time 
settled above the Falls of the Rappahannock River, at a place 
afterwards named Germanna, to the great advantage of the 
Colony, and the security of the frontiers from the incursions 
of the Indians, the Assembly passed an Act to exempt them 
from levies for seven years, and for eredting Germanna into a 
distincft parish, by the name of ' ' St. George. ' ' Here Governor 
Spotswood established a furnace and built a "Castle," in 
which he occasionally resided. He endeavored to develop 
the mineral resources of this secftion, and the Rev. Hugh 
Jones, one of the colonial clergy, says : 



ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD. 143 

"Beyond Governor Spotsvvood's furnace, within view of the vast 
mountains, he has founded a town called Germanna, from some Germans 
sent over by Queen Ann, who are now removed up further. Here he has 
servants and workmen of most handicraft trades, and he is building a 
church, court house, and dwelling house for himself, and with his servants 
and negroes he has cleared plantations aljout it, proposing great encour- 
agement for people to come and settle in that uninhabited part of the 
world, lately divided into a county." 

At this time pig and bar iron were first made in Virginia. 

The dangerous extent of the French claims upon the 
Continent had for a long time attracted the attention of the 
Colonies. To resist it, was one of the earliest efforts of 
Spotswood, who hoped to extend the line of the Virginia 
settlements far enough to the West to interrupt the chain of 
communication between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico. 

In 1 716, Governor Spotswood, with some of the first gentle- 
men in the Colony, led personall}^ an expedition to search for a 
passage or gap through "the great mountains." Campbell 
says: " The whole company was about fifty persons. They 
had a large number of riding and pack-horses, an abundant 
supply of provisions, and an extraordinary variety of liquors." 
This gay party of adventurers started from Germanna, and 
after leisurely advancing through the country reached ' ' Swift 
Run Gap," which is supposed to be the now historic "pass." 
Governor Spotswood is said to have cut his Majesty's name 
upon a rock on the highest mountain they ascended, naming 
it " Mt. George," and the gentlemen of the party called the 
peak next to it, in honor of the Governor, "Mt. Spotswood." 

What must have been the exultation and the triumph 
which thrilled the hearts and brains of those explorers as 
they beheld the goodly heritage which spread before them ! 
At their feet lay an unconquered realm, untrodden and 
unknown ! Here was a time, indeed, to pause and dream of 
glories "yet to be." Thoughts such as Columbus had in his 
supreme moment of discovery must have shaken those sturdy 
forms and filled those wondering eyes with a prophetic meaning. 
Now, that those visions are realities, that those hopes have 
faded in fruition ; now, that the Atlantic and Pacific surges 



144 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

wash the shores of 07ie country and one people, well may we 

" Honor the charge they made," 
as this knightly companj^ breaking through Swift Run Gap, 
planted their daring standard on the Appalachian Range, 
and grasped in that momentous hour an imperial hope — 

' ' The baby figure of the giant mass 
Of things to come." 

On this eventful Quest, these cavaliers were compelled to 
carry a large number of horseshoes, things seldom used in 
the eastern part of Virginia, where there were few stones. 
In commemoration of the journey, the Governor on his return 
presented each of his companions with a golden horseshoe, 
bearing the inscription, ''Sic jtivat transce7idere Mo7ites.'' 
By this he intended to stimulate them to return to this wild 
region and open the countrj^ to future settlers. Any one 
entitled to wear this golden badge could prove that he be- 
longed to ' ' The Tramontane Order, ' ' and had drunk his 
Majesty's health on wild Mt. George. King George, when 
he heard of the expedition, bestowed upon Governor Spots- 
wood the honors of knighthood, and sent him a golden horse- 
shoe set with jewels. All who took part in this memorable 
trip were recognized by the title of ' ' The Knight of the 
Golden Horseshoe." 

The following journal of one of the party on this 
expedition cannot fail to be of lasting interest. It was 
written by Mr. John Fontaine, who came to Virginia, in 17 13, 
for the purpose of exploring the country and choosing lands 
for the settlement of his family. He was an Ensign in the 
British army, and shows by his journal that he had the 
indomitable spirit of the British soldier. He made the 
acquaintance of Governor Spotswood, who no doubt gladly 
enrolled him in his band of discoverers : 

Journal of Mr. Fontaine. 

August 27th. — Got our tents in order and our horses shod. 

29th. — In the morning we got all things in readiness, and about one 
we left the German-town, to set out on our intended journey. At five in 
the afternoon the Governor gave orders to encamp near a small river 
three miles from Germanna, which we call Expedition Run, and here we 



ALEXANDER SPOTSWOOD. 145 

lay all night. The first encampment was called Beverly Camp, in honor 
of one of the gentlemen of our party. We made great fires, and supped, 
and drank good punch. By ten of the clock I had taken all of my ounce 
of Jesuit's bark, but my head was much out of order. 

30th. — In the morning about seven of the clock the trumpet sounded 
to awake all the company, and we got up. One Austin Smith, one of the 
gentlemen with us, having a fever, returned home. We had lain upon 
the ground under cover of our tents, and we found by the pains in our 
bones that we had not had good beds to lie upon. At nine in the morn- 
ing we sent our servants and baggage forward, and we remained, be- 
cause two of the Governor's horses had strayed. At half-past two we got 
the horses, at three we mounted, and at half an hour after four we came 
up with our baggage at a small river three miles on the way, which we 
call Mine River, because there was an appearance of a silver mine by it. 
We made about three miles more, and came to another small river, which 
is at the foot of a small mountain, so we encamped here and called it 
Mountain Run, and our camp we called Todd's Camp. We had good 
pasturage for our horses, and venison in abundance for ourselves, which 
we roasted before the fire on wooden forks, and so we went to bed in 
our tents. We made six miles this day. 

31st. — At eight in the morning we set out from Mountain Run, and 
after going five miles we came upon the upper part Rappahannock River. 
One of the gentlemen and I, we kept out on one side of the company 
about a mile, to have the better hunting. I saw a deer and shot him from 
my horse, but the horse threw me a terrible fall and ran away ; we ran 
after him, and with a great deal of difficulty got him again ; but we could 
not find the deer I had shot, and we lost ourselves, and it was two hours 
before we could come upon the track of our company. About five miles 
farther we crossed the same river again, and two miles farther we met 
with a large. bear, which one of our company shot, and I got the skin. 
We killed several deer, and about two miles from the place where we 
killed the bear we encamped, upon the Rappahannock River. From our 
encampment we could see the Appalachian Hills very plain. We made large 
fires, pitched our tents, and cut boughs to lie upon, had good liquor, and 
at ten we went to sleep. We always kept a sentry at the Governor's door. 
We called this Smith's Camp. Made this day fourteen miles. 

1st September. — At eight we mounted our horses and made the first 
five miles of our way through a very pleasant plain, which lies where 
Rappahannock River forks. I saw there the largest timber, the finest and 
deepest mould, and the best grass that I ever did see. We had some of 
our baggage put out of order, and our company dismounted, by hornets 
stinging the horses. This was some hindrance and did a little damage, 
but afforded a great deal of diversion. We killed three bears this day, 
which exercised the horses as well as the men. We saw two foxes, but 
did not pursue them ; we killed several deer. About five of the clock we 



146 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

came to a run of water at the foot of a hill where we pitched our tents. 
We called the encampment Dr. Robinson's Camp, and the River, Blind 
Run. We had good pasturage for our horses, and every one was cook for 
himself. We made our beds with bushes as before. This day we made 
thirteen miles. 

2d. — At nine we were all on horseback, and after riding about five 
miles we crossed the Rappahannock River almost at the head, where it is 
very small. We had a rugged way ; we passed over a great many small 
runs of water, some of which were very deep and others very miry. Sev. 
cral of our company were dismounted, some were down with their horses, 
and some thrown oif. We saw a bear running down a tree, but it being 
Sunday we did not endeavor to kill anything. We encamped at five, by 
a small river we called White Oak River, and called our camp, Taylor's 
Camp. 

3d. — About eight we were on horseback, and about ten we came to a 
thicket so tightly laced together that we had a great deal of trouble to get 
through. Our baggage was injured, our clothes torn all to rags, and the 
saddles and holsters also torn. About live of the clock we encamped 
almost at the head of James River, just below the great mountains. We 
called this camp, Col. Robertson's Camp. We made all this day Imt eight 
miles. 

4th. — We had two of our men sick with the measles and one of our 
horses poisoned with a rattlesnake. We took the heaviest of our baggage, 
ovir tired horses, and the sick men, and made as convenient a lodge for 
them as we could, and left people to guard them, and to hunt for them. 
We had finished this work by twelve, and so we set out. The sides of the 
mountains were so full of vines and briers, that we were forced to clear 
most of the way before us. We crossed one of the small mountains on 
this side the Appalachian, and from the top of it we had a fine view of the 
plains below. We were obliged to walk up the most of the way, there 
being abundance of loose stones on the side of the hill. I killed a large 
rattlesnake here, and the other people killed three more. We made about 
four miles, and so came to the side of James River where a man may 
jump over it, and there we pitched our tents. As the people were light- 
ing the fire, there came out of a large log of wood, a prodigious snake, 
which they killed, so this camp was called Rattlesnake Camp, but other- 
wise, it was called Brooke's Camp. 

5th. — A fair day. At five we were moimted. We were obliged to 
have axemen to clear the way in some places. We followed the windings 
of James River, observing that it came from the very top of the mount- 
ains. We killed two rattlesnakes during our ascent. In some places it 
was very steep, in others it was so that we could ride up. About one of 
the clock we got to the top of the mountain ; about^four miles and a half 
and we came to the very head-spring of James River, where it runs no 
bigger than a man's arm from under a big stone. We drank King 



ALEXANDER SPOTS WOOD. 147 

George's health and all the royal family's at the very top of the Appa- 
lachian mountains. About a musket-shot from the spring there is 
another, which rises and runs down to the other side. It goes westward, 
and we thought we could go down that way, biit we met with such pro- 
digious precipices, that we were obliged to return to the top again. Wc 
found some trees which had been formerly marked, I suppose I)y the 
Northern Indians, and following these trees we found a good, safe descent. 
Several of the company were for returning, but the Governor persuaded 
them to continue on. About five, we were down on the other side, and 
continued our way until about seven miles further, when we came to a 
large river, by the side of which we encamped. We made this day four- 
teen miles. I, being somewhat more curious than the rest, went on a 
high rock on the top of the mountain to see fine prospects, and I lost my 
gun. We saw when we wei-c over the mountain, the footing of elk and 
buffaloes and their beds. We saw a vine which bore a sort of wild cucum- 
ber, and a shrub with a fniit like unto a currant. W^e ate very good wild 
grapes. We called this place Spotswood's Camp, after our Governor. 

6th. — We crossed tire river, which we called Euphrates. K is verj^ 
deep ; the main course of the water is north ; it is fourscore yards wide in 
the narrowest part. We drank some health on the other side and returned, 
after which I went a-swimming in it. We could not find any fordable 
place except the one by which we crossed, and it was deep in several 
places. I got some grasshoppers and fished, and another and I, we catchcd 
a dish of fish, some perch, and a kind of fish they called "chub." The 
others went a-hunting, and killed deer and turkeys. The Governor had 
graving irons, but could not grave anything, the stone was so hard. I 
graved my name on a tree by the river side, and the Governor buried a 
l)ottle with a paper enclosed, on which he writ that he took possession of 
this place, in the name and for King George First of England. Wc had a 
good dinner, and after it wc got the men together and loaded all their 
arms, and we drank the King's health in champagne and fired a volley, 
the Princess's health in Burgundy and fired a volley, and all the rest of 
the royal family in claret and a volley. We drank the Governor's health 
and fired another volley. We had several sorts of liquors, viz., Virginia 
red wine and white wine, Irish usquebaugh, brandy, shrub, two sorts of 
rum, champagne, canary, cherry punch, water, cider, &c. I sent two of 
the rangers to look for my gun which I dropped in the mountain ; they 
found it and brought it to me at night, and I gave them a pistol for their 
trouble. We called the highest mountain " Mount George," and the one 
we crossed over, "Mount Spotswood." 

yth. — At seven in the morning we mounted our horses and parted 
with the rangers who were to go farther on, and we returned homewards. 
Wc repassed the mountains, and at five in the afternoon, we came to Hospital 
Camp, where we left our sick men and heav3'l)aggage, and we found all things 
well and safe. We encamped here and called it, Captain Clonder's Camp. 



148 THE GOVERNORS OF VIROINIA. 

8th. — At nine, we were all on horseback. We saw several bears and 
deer, and killed some wild turkeys. We encamped at the side of a run 
and called the place Mason's Camp. We had good forage for our horses, 
and we lay as usual. Made twenty miles this day. 

9th. — We set out at nine of the clock, and before twelve, we saw several 
bears, and killed three. One of them attacked one of our men that was 
riding after him, and narrowly missed him ; he tore his things that he had 
behind him from off the horse, and would have destroyed him had he not 
had immediate help from the other men and our dogs. Some of the dogs suf- 
fered severely in this engagement. At two we crossed one of the branches 
of the Rappahannock River, and at five we encamped on the side of the 
Rapid Ann, on a trail of land that Mr. Beverly* hath design to take up. 
We made this day twenty-three miles, and called this Captain Smith's 
Camp. We ate part of one of the bears, which tasted very well, and 
would be good and might pass for veal if one did not know what it was. 
We were very merry, and diverted ourselves with our adventures. 

loth. — At eight we were on horseback, and about ten, as we were 
going up a small hill, Mr. Beverly and his horse fell down, and they both 
rolled to the bottom ; but there were no bones broken on either side. At 
twelve, as we were crossing a run of water, Mr. Clonder fell in, so we 
called this place Clonder's Run. At one we arrived at a large spring, 
where we dined and drank a bowl of punch. We called this, Fontaine's 
Spring. About two we got on horse-back, and at four we reached Ger- 
manna. 

Governor Spotswood is recognized as one of Virginia's 
wisest Governors, combining many noble virtues with that 
fine executive ability which gave the best direcftion to the 
highest efforts. He it was who pressed the passage of an A(5l 
for improving the staple of tobacco and making tobacco-notes 
the medium of circulation. Being a thorough soldier, he 
kept the militia in excellent discipline. He was master of 
mathematics, built the odlagon magazine at Williamsburg, 
which still stands, and rebuilt William and Mary College. 
At his request, a grant of ^1,000 was made by the college in 
17 18, and a fund created for instructing Indian children 
in Christianity. A school for this purpose was established at 
Fort Christiana, on the south side of Meherrin River, in 
what is now Southampton County. Under his wise leader- 
ship, Virginia paid her taxes in tobacco, and alone of all the 
Colonies had no public debt, no banks, no bills of credit, and 

* Mr. B. Johnson Barbour's title to his beautiful river-farm goes back to Beverly's 
patent. 



ALEXANDER SPOTSIVOOD. 149 

no paper money ! He urged upon the mother country the 
policy of establishing a chain of posts beyond the mountains, 
from the lakes to the Mississippi, to restrain the encroach- 
ments of the French, but his voice fell upon a deaf ear, 
though, years afterwards, his scheme was carried out. The 
authors of Universal History say, that about the year 1716 
Governor Spotswood of Virginia proposed to purchase some 
of the lands belonging to the Outaowais (since called the 
Twightees) on the river Ohio, and to eredl a company for 
opening a trade to the southward, westward, and northward 
of that river; and that this proposal gave rise to the Ohio 
Company. "This noble project," they proceed to observe, 
"clashing with the views of the French, who had by this 
time formed their great schemes on the Mississippi, and the 
ministry of George I. having reasons for keeping well with 
that Court, the scheme was not merely relinquished, but the 
French were encouraged to build the fort of Crown Point on 
the territory of New York." 

Long after this suggestion of Governor Spotswood, in 
1716, after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Ocftober 7, 1748, in 
the year 1749, some influential persons in Virginia and Eng- 
land associated under the name of ' ' The Ohio Company ' ' 
and obtained from the Crown a grant of 600,000 acres of land 
about the Ohio River. This grant alarmed the French as being 
calculated to prevent the juncftion of Canada and Louisiana, 
and was the first link in a chain of causes which produced 
the ensuing wars between England and France . Had Governor 
Spotswood 's timely warning been listened to, a bloody war 
might have been averted ; but his advice was unheeded by 
England, and the Colonies had in later times to suffer for 
this negledled opportunity. 

Many and great were the benefits which Governor Spots- 
wood sought to bestow upon the home of his adoption, but, 
in the midst of his wise and spirited exertions for the 
advancement of the Colony, he fell into disfavor with the 
clergy, who effedled his removal as Governor, in September, 
1722. Possessing a tradl of 45,000 acres of land in Spotsyl- 
vania County (which was named after him), he retired there 



150 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

and engaged largely in the manufadlure of iron, as the ore 
largely abounded in this region. In 1730 he was made Dep- 
uty Postmaster- General for the American Colonies, and held 
the office until 1739, and it was he who made Benjamin 
Franklin postmaster for the province of Pennsylvania. He 
married in 1724, Anne Butler, daughter of Richard Brayane, 
Esq., of England, and this lady subsequently married Rev. 
John Thompson. Governor Spotswood had four children, 
John, Robert, Anne Catherine, and Dorothea. Anne Cath- 
erine married Bernard Moore, of Chelsea, in King William 
County; their daughter married Charles Carter, of Shirley, 
and was the grandmother of General Robert Edward Lee. 
Governor Spotswood died at Annapolis, Md., June 7, 1740, 
on the eve of embarking in command of the four battalions 
raised in the Colonies to assist England in the attack upon 
Carthagena. He was buried at "Temple Farm," his coun- 
try-seat, near Yorktown. The place derived its name from 
a house in the garden built by Spotswood as a cemetery, and 
was destined to become famous in histor3^ It was in the 
mansion at ' ' Temple Farm ' ' that Lord Cornwallis met Gen- 
eral Washington and signed those world-renowned ' ' Arti- 
cles of Capitulation," which secured to America her blood- 
bought independence ! 



L. 



HUGH DRYSDALH. 

L ieutenan t- Gover7ioi\ 
September 27, 1722, to July 22, 1726. 

Hugh Drysdale succeeded Governor Spotswood as 
Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, September 27, 1722. 
Although his administration was a brief one, he left his mark 
upon the "body of the times." His correspondence with 
the Bishop of lyondon on the subject of the colonial clergy, 
shows the high standard he had for ministers of the Gospel, 
and his position upon the slave trade is equally well defined. 
In order to relieve the colonists from a poll-tax, a duty was 
laid by the Assembly on the importation of liquors and slaves, 
but owing to the opposition of the African Company, the A(5l 
was annulled by the British Board of Trade. Governor 
Drysdale announced to the House of Burgesses that "the 
interfering interest of the African Company had obtained the 
repeal of that law." The planters beheld with dismay the 
alarming increase of negroes, but, as was said by one unbiased 
by hostility to England, ''the British government constantly 
checked the attempts of Virginia to put a stop to this infernal 
traffic.'' In June, 171 2, Queen Anne, in her speech to Par- 
liament, boasts of her success in securing to Englishmen a 
new market for slaves in Spanish America. George II. 
favored the custom, and soon every obstrudlion to private 
enterprise was removed and the ports of Africa laid open to 
English competition. The statute declared that "the slave 
trade is very advantageous to Great Britain," and so, this 
great sin, though forced upon Virginia, became in the lapse 
of years its own avenger. 

Governor Drysdale died and was gathered to his fathers, 
but in the light of the nineteenth century, his opposition to 
bringing slaves into Virginia will make his term memorable. 

J51 



LI. 



ROBERT CARTER. 

President of the Coimcil. 
July 22, 1726, to Odlober 13, 1727. 

According to Hening, "Hugh Drysdale died the 22d 
July, 1726, and Colo. Jennings being suspended, Colo. 
Robert Carter took upon himself the administration of the 
government, as President of the Council. Robert Carter 
continued President of the Council till some time between the 
17th of August and 13th of October, 1727, when William 
Gooch was appointed Govenor." 

Robert Carter was born in 1667. He was the son of John 
Carter, an emigrant from England, who settled first in upper 
Norfolk County and held many important positions under the 
colonial government. Robert Carter was for many years the 
agent of L,ord Fairfax, the Proprietor of the Northern Neck 
grant. He was Speaker of the House of Burgesses for six 
3'ears, long a member of the Council, and as President of that 
body presided over the government of Virginia until the 
arrival of Governor Gooch. By his large landed possessions 
he obtained the title of " King Carter," and those who have 
read his letters and studied his charadler declare that he pos- 
sessed some kingly attributes. The old Christ church in 
Lancaster County was built by him, and his remains lie 
under the tombstone at the east end of the church, which yet 
stands, a memorial of the past. The following is a translation 
of Governor Carter's Latin epitaph : 

"Here lies buried Robert Carter, Esqr. , an honorable man, who by 
noble endowments and pure morals gave lustre to his gentle birth. 

" Rector of 'William knd Mary,' he sustained that institution in its 
most trying times. He was Speaker of the House of Burgesses, and 
Treasurer under the most serene Princes, William, Anne, George I. and II. 



ROBERT CARTER. 153 

"Elected by the House its vSpeaker six years, and Govenor of the 
Colony for more than a j^ear, he upheld equally the regal dignity and the 
public freedom. 

" Possessed of am pie wealth, blamelessly acquired, he built and endowed, 
at his own expense, this sacred edifice — a signal monument of his piety 
toward God. He furnished it richly. 

"Entertaining his friends kindly, he was neither a prodigal nor a par- 
simonious host. 

"His first wife was Judith, daughter of John Armistead, Esq.; his 
second, Betty, a descendant of the noble family of Landons. By these 
wives he had many children, on whose education he expended large sums 
of money. 

" At length, full of honors and of years, when he had well performed 
all the duties of an exemplary life, he departed from this world on the 4th 
day of August, 1732, in the 69th year of his age. 

" The unhappy lament their lost comforter, the widows their lost pro- 
tector, and the orphans their lost father." 



XI 



LII. 



WILLIAM GOOCH. 

Lieutenant-Governor. 

0(5lober 13, 1727, to June, 1740. 

King George I. of England having died, nth June, 1727, 
William Gooch assumed the reins of government in Virginia, 
in the first year of the reign of George II. Governor Gooch 
was born at Yarmouth, England, 21st Odlober, 1681 . He was 
educated for the army, served under Marlborough, and was an 
officer of superior military ability. His course as Chief Magis- 
trate in Virginia has always met with unqualified commenda- 
tion, and so wise was the policy he adopted, that he is said to 
have been the only colonial Governor in America against whom, 
at home and abroad, there was never a shadow of complaint. 
Virginia enjoyed prosperity and repose under his adminis- 
tration. In 1728 the boundary line between Virginia and 
North Carolina was satisfadlorily settled, an a(5l of great 
importance to the inhabitants of these Colonies who lived on 
their respedlive borders. In 1740 troops were transported 
from the Colonies for the first time, to assist the soldiers of 
the Mother-country. Major-General Alexander Spotswood 
had been appointed to the command of the four colonial bat- 
talions (four hundred men of which, being Virginia's quota), 
raised to join in an attack on Carthagena, but dying unex- 
pedledly, on the eve of embarkation. Governor Gooch assumed 
command of the expedition. During his absence, the govern- 
ment of Virginia devolved upon Commissary James Blair, 
President of the Council. 



LIII. 

WILLIAM ANNE KBPPBL. 

(SKCOND EARI, OF ALBEMARLE.) 

Governor-in- Chief. 
September 6, 1737, to December 23, 1754. 

William Anne Keppel, second Earl of Albemarle, 
was born at Whitehall, in 1702, and received his second 
Christian name from Queen Anne, who was present at his 
baptism, adling as sponsor on the occasion. In 1717, he was 
appointed by George I. a Captain in the British Army, and 
was continuously promoted for gallant and meritorious con- 
dudl until 1743, when he was made a lyieutenant-General. 
He was distinguished in many battles and won many honors ; 
was Embassador to France in 1 748 ; created a Knight of the 
Garter, 1750; a member of the Privy Council, 1751; and 
enjoyed many other high positions of trust and confidence, 
among them, that of " Governor-in-Chief of Virginia." To 
this, he succeeded George Ha^iilton, Earl of Orkney, on the 
death of the latter, September 6, 1737, being appointed thereto 
by George II. 

Lord Albemarle died in Paris, 1754, but his name still 
lives in a county in Virginia, and in a sound on the coast of 
North Carolina. He married Anne, daughter of Charles, 
first Duke of Richmond, and the celebrated Viscount Augustus 
Keppel was his son. 



155 



LIV. 



COMMISSARY JAMES BLAIR. 

President of the Conncil. 
June, 1740, to July, 1741. 

James Blair was born in Scotland, in 1655. Having 
been educated for the Church, he became one of its most 
zealous champions, and was sent by the Bishop of L,ondon, in 
1685, as a missionary to Virginia. He was the minister of 
Henrico parish for nine years, and then moved to Jamestown 
in order to be more convenient to the college which he was 
raising up. He had been made Commissary of the Bishop 
of lyondon, and in 17 10 he became the Minister of Bruton 
parish. He was largely instrumental in procuring the 
charter for William and Mary College, and a grant of twenty 
thousand acres of land for its support. The King himself 
subscribed ;^2,ooo towards its building, out of the quit-rents. 
Seymour, the Attorney- General of Great Britain, remon- 
strated against such liberality, urging that the nation was 
engaged in an expensive war. Commissary Blair in reply 
said, that the institution was for the education of young men 
to be ministers of the gospel, and suggested that the people 
of Virginia had souls to be saved, as well as the people 
of England. "Souls!" exclaimed Seymour, "damn your 
souls ! make tobacco ! ' ' But notwithstanding this command, 
the college was built, and owed its existence in large measure 
to Mr. Blair. 

The history of Mr. Blair during the last forty-three out 
of the fifty-three years of his ministry, is inseparably con- 
nected with the history of Williamsburg, the College,' the 
Governors, Council, Assembly, and Church of Virginia. He 
filled a large space about him, and battled manfully in sup- 
port of his convictions of right. As a faithful soldier of 

156 



COMMISSARY JAMES BLAIR. 157 

Christ, his trumpet had no uncertain sound. That a man of 
his active character and superior mind should for more than 
half a centur}' have been as.sociated in matters of high impor- 
tance to church and state without man}- contests, was not 
possible. He was engaged in controversies with Governors 
and clergy during the whole period of his Presidency of the 
College, and few men ever contended with more difficulties 
or surmounted them better than Dr. Blair. In addition to 
his daily and varied duties, he found time to write one hun- 
dred and seventeen sermons expositor}^ of the ' ' Sermon on 
the Mount." Bishop William Meade says, in 1872: "As 
an accurate commentary on that most blessed portion of 
Scripture, I should think it can never have been surpassed." 

Dr. Blair was long a member of the Council, and as Pres- 
ident of that body, was the Acting Governor of Virginia 
during the absence of Governor Gooch on the Carthagena 
expedition, from June, 1740, to July 25, 1741. He died 
August 3, 1743, aged 88, and was buried at Jamestown. By 
his will he left his library and ;^5oo to the College, and 
^10,000 to his nephew and the children of his nephew, 
l^esides some smaller legacies. His nephew, John Blair, was 
long President of the Council, and a man of high character. 
His son, John Blair, "was distinguished as a patriot, states- 
man, and jurist. He represented the College of William and 
Mary in the House of Burgesses for a long time, took an 
active part in all the Revolutionary' movements, was a mem- 
ber of the great convention which met to revise the Articles 
of Confederation, and finally, was one of the Supreme Federal 
Court." 

The following is a translation of the lyatin inscription on 
Commissary Blair's toml:)Stone, in the old graveyard at 
Jamestown, Va.: 

Here lies buried 
The Reverend and the Honorable 
JAMES BLAIR, A. M., 
Who was born in Scotland, was educated in the College of Edinburg, and 
emigrated to England, and thence to Virginia, in which Colony he 
spent fifty-eight years as an Evangelist, Deacon, and Priest of the Church 
of England, and fifty-four years as Commissary of the Bishop of London. 



158 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

He was the Founder and first President of William and Mary College, a 
member of the Council, and, subsequently, its President ; and, as such, 
in the absence of the representative of the King, the Governor of the Colony. 

" He sustained his various offices with the apjirobation of his fellow- 
men, while he illustrated in his life those graces which adorn the Chris- 
tian character. He had a handsome person, and in the family circle 
blended cheerfiilness with piety. 

" He was a generous friend of the poor, and was prompt in lending 
assistance to all who needed it. 

" He was a liberal benefactor of the College during his life, and at his 
death bequeathed to it his library, with the hope that his books, which 
were mostly religious, might lead the student to those things that pertain 
to salvation. 

" He died on the 3d day of the Calends of May, (August, rather,) in 
the year 1743, aged eighty-eight years, exhibiting to the last those graces 
which make old age lovely, and lamented by all, especially by his 
nephews, who have reared this stone to commemorate those virtues which 
will long survive the marble that records them." 



LV. 



SIR WILLIAM GOOCH. 

Lieutenant-Governor. 
July, 1741, to June 20, 1749. 

Upon the accession of George I., King of England, 17 14, 
the Continental Colonies counted 375,750 white inhabitants 
and 58,850 black, and were increasing with unexampled 
rapidity. The love of popular power was alive everywhere, 
and a period of tranquility necessary to healthy progress was 
vouchsafed the country. In the different Colonies the spirit 
of liberty and desire for self-government prevailed, and Amer- 
ica, by a slow but steady growth, was unconsciously ripening 
for independence. But neither the threatening troubles of 
England on the North with France, nor her wars on the 
South with Spain, neither the invasion by the mother coun- 
try of colonial rights, nor the growing and palpable necessity 
for co-operation, had yd moved the Colonies to common 
action. 

During this time of advance and prosperity, William 
Gooch, returning from the expedition against Carthagena, 
assumed again the government of Virginia. During his 
administration the settlement of the beautiful valley of Vir- 
ginia was effected, in 1734. Through reports brought back 
by Governor Spotswood and party of this fertile region, 
settlers were induced to visit it, and this led to its permanent 
occupation. It is narrated that one of these settlers carried 
a young buffalo calf to Williamsburg and presented it to 
Governor Gooch. In return the Governor gave him a grant 
for five thousand acres of land in the valley, upon condition 
that he would, within ten years, settle one hundred families 
upon it. Governor Gooch returned to England in 1749, 
having been previously created a Baronet, and in 1747 was 
made a Major-General. On his departure he left John Rob- 
inson, President of the Council, as Acting Governor of the 
Colony. Sir William Gooch died December 17, 1751. 



LVI. 

JOHN ROBINSON. 

President of the Coimcil. 
June 20, 1749, to September 5, 1749. 

The first of the Robinson family of whom we have knowl- 
edge was John Robinson, of Cleasby, Yorkshire, England, 
who married Elizabeth Potter, of Cleasby, daughter of 
Christopher Potter, from whom, no doubt, the name of Chris- 
topher, so common in the family, was derived. The fourth 
son of John Robinson was Dr. John Robinson, Bishop of 
Bristol, and while Bishop, was British Envoy for some years 
at the Court of Sweden, writing while there, a history of 
Sweden. He was also British Plenipotentiary at the Treaty 
of Utrecht, being, it is supposed, the last bishop or clergy- 
man employed in a public service of that kind. He after- 
wards became Bishop of lyondon, in which office he continued 
until his death, in 1723. Having no children, he devised 
his real estate to the eldest son of his brother Christopher, 
who had emigrated to Virginia and settled on the Rappahan- 
nock River. This Christopher was a vestryman in the church 
in Middlesex County, in 1664. He married Miss Bertram, 
and their oldest son (who inherited the Bishop of London's 
estate) was John Robinson, born in 1683. He married 
Catherine Beverley, daughter of Robert Beverley, author of 
"The History of Virginia," and "Speaker Robinson," or 
John Robinson, who was Speaker of the House of Burgesses 
and Treasurer of the Colony, was their son. 

John Robinson (born in 1683) occupied many important 
positions in the Colony. He was Speaker of the House of Bur- 
gesses under Sir William Gooch, and was the first on the list of 
gentlemen named by Governor Gooch to disburse the ^4000 
appropriated by the General Assembly for an expedition 

160 



JOHN ROBINSON. 161 

against Canada. This Adl reads, " Whereas his most sacred 
Majesty, for vindicating the honor of his crown, and for 
restoring the peace and tranquilit)' of Europe, is engaged in 
a just and necessary war against the French King ; and with 
a fervent and paternal vigilance ever meditating the advance- 
ment of his people's happiness, and the confusion of our 
common enemy, hath resolved on an important expedition to 
the Northward, and required his American Colonies to second 
it with their united forces and abilities ; and hath instrudted 
his lyieutenant-Governor of this Colon}^ to enlist men with all 
possible speed, who with the levies made in the other govern- 
ments are to rendezvous at Albany, in New York, and thence 
proceed to adt in conjuncftion with the troops from Great 
Britain, in the Conquest of Canada," etc., etc. 

The most important feature of Governor Robinson's brief 
administration was the passage of several Adls by the 
Assembly, touching the government of the Colony, which 
were afterwards, in 1752, repealed by the King. "This," 
says Hening, "made a very important change in our system 
of jurisprudence, and it became necessary to publish a new 
edition of our laws." 



LVII. 

THOMAS LEE. 

President of the Council. 

September 5, 1749, to February 12, 1751. 

Thomas IvEE, President of the Council, succeeded Presi- 
dent Robinson in the administration of the government of 
Virginia, in 1749. In this station he continued for some time, 
until the King thought proper to appoint him Governor of 
the Colony ; but he died before his commission reached him. 

Thomas lyce was the fourth son of Richard and lyCttice 
(Corbin) lyce, and was descended in the third generation 
from Richard lyce, who emigrated from Shropshire, England, 
and settled in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1641. 
This Richard lyce, known as " The Emigrant," had several 
children ; the eldest two, John and Richard, were educated 
at Oxford, England, where John took his degree as Doctor of 
Physic, and, returning to Virginia, died before his father. 
Richard, the eldest son then living, born 1647, spent most of 
his life in study, and usually wrote his notes in Greek, He- 
brew, or L,atin, many of which are now in Virginia. He was 
a member of the Council in Virginia, and held other offices 
of honor and profit. He married lyCttice Corbin, daughter of 
Henry Corbin, Gentleman. She died Odlober 6, 1706, aged 
49 years, and left the following children, viz.: Richard, 
Philip, Francis, Thomas, Henry, and Mary. Pliilip is the 
progenitor of Francis L,ee Smith, to whom this book, in deep 
veneration, is dedicated. TJiomas is the subjedl of the pres- 
ent article, and Henry is the progenitor of General Robert 
Edward Lee. 

In Cople Parish, in the Burnt-House fields, at Mount 
Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Virginia, is a tombstone 
with Latin inscriptions, of which the following are transla- 
tions, viz.: First: 

1G2 



THOMAS LEE. 163 

"Here lieth the l)ody of Richard Lee, Esq'r, born in Virginia, son of 
Richard Lee, Gentleman, descended of an ancient family ofMerton-Regis, 
in Shropshire." 

' ' While he exercised the office of a magistrate he was a zealous pro- 
moter of the public good. He was very skillful in the Greek and 
Latin languages, and other parts of polite learning. He quietly resigned 
his soul to God, whom he always devoutly worshipped, on the i2tli day of 
March, in the year 1714, in the 68th year of his age." 

Second : 

" Near by is interred tlie liody of Lettuce, his faithful wife, daughter of 
Henry Corbin, Gentleman. A most affectionate mother, she was also 
distinguished l)y piety toward God, charity to the poor, and kindness to all. 
She died on the 6th day of October, 1706, in the 49th year of her age. 

The will of W\& first Richard Lee, dated 1663, can he seen 
in Mr. Charles Campbell's History of Virginia, p. 157. He 
was devoted to Virginia, and was bent on settling all of his 
family in the Colony. So firm was he in this purpose that 
by his will he ordered an estate he had in England, near 
Stratford-by-Bow, in Middlesex, at that time worth eight or 
nine hundred pounds per annum, to be sold and the money 
to be divided among his children. The value of this settle- 
ment in the Colony of Virginia is read in the pages of her 
history. 

Thomas Lee was born about the year 1680, and (as says 
his son William) " though with none but a common Virginia 
education, yet having .strong natural parts, long after he was 
a man he learned the languages without any assistance but 
his own genius, and became a tolerable adept in the Greek 
and Latin. By his industry and parts he acquired a consid- 
erable fortune, and though he had very few acquaintances in 
England, he was so well known by his reputation that upon 
his receiving a loss by fire the late Queen Caroline sent him 
over a bountiful present out of her own privy purse." This 
establishes the source from whence came the means of building 
the present house at Stratford, in Westmoreland County, Vir- 
ginia. In the thickness of its walls and excellency of its 
architecture it is not .surpas.sed in Virginia. It has some- 
times been called "The Governor's House," because the 
owner and builder was Thomas Lee. He married in 1721, 



164 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

Hannah, daughter of Philip Ivudwell, and granddaughter of 
Ivady Berkeley (widow of Sir William Berkeley), who mar- 
ried, thirdly, 1680, Philip Ludwell. 

Thomas Lee left by his marriage with Miss lyudwell six 
sons and two daughters. These sons, Philip Ludwell, 
Thomas Ludwell, Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, Wil- 
liam, and Arthur, are names, familiar to every student of 
Virginia history. 

Thomas Lee was long a member of the House of Burgesses 

and of the Council, and as President of that body, on the 

untimely death of Governor Robinson, became the A(5ling 

Governor of the Colony. He was a member of the famous 

Ohio Company, and a man of enterprise and wisdom. He 

died early in the year 1 75 1 . The following inscription is on 

a slab in the family vault at Stratford : 

" 111 niciiiory of the 

HON. THOMAS I.EE, 

whose body was buried at Pope's Creek Church, 

five miles above his country seat, Stratford-Hall, 

in 1751. 

It was near Pope's Creek Church, on the road from West- 
moreland Court-House to King George County, that Gen. 
Geo. Washington was born, and here he was baptized. His- 
toric ground. 

Of the six sons of Thomas Lee, of Stratford, mention must 
be made here, that the father may participate in the greatness 
of his children : 

Philip Liidwell Lee, the eldest, succeeded his father at Strat- 
ford. He married a Miss Steptoe, and their daughter, Matilda, 
married General Henry Lee, of the Revolutionary Army. 

Thomas Liidwell Lee settled in Stafford, and married a 
Miss Aylett. 

Richard Henry Lee was educated in England, returned to 
Virginia in his 19th year, and married first a Miss Aylett, 
and second a Mrs. Pinkard, who was a Miss Gaskins. He 
took an active part in the Revolution, and his interesting life 
has been written and preserved to us by his grandson, Rich- 
ard Henry Lee. 



THOMAS LEE. 165 

Francis Lighijooi Lcc also participated largely in the 
stirring events of the Revolution, and was regarded as one of 
the ablest orators and statesmen of that day. 

Williatn Lee became Sheriff and an Alderman of lyondon, 
and subsequently "commercial agent for Congress, in Europe 
and their Commissioner at the Courts of Berlin and Vienna." 

Arthur Lee, the sixth and youngest son, as a scholar, a 
writer, a philosopher, and a diplomatist, was equalled by few 
of his contemporaries. He studied Physic in Edinburgh, 
where he took his degree, but disliking the profession, he 
studied Eaw. " The services rendered by him to his country 
as her Minister at foreign Courts were most valuable." 



LVIII. 

LEWIS BURWEIvL. 

President of the Council. 

February 12, 1751, to November 20, 1751. 

The ancient seat of the Burwell family in Virginia was 
in Gloucester County, in full view of York River. A 
portion of the house w^as recently standing and appeared by 
figures on the walls to have been built some time in the latter 
part of the 17th century. This place at one time was called 
" Fairfield," but of recent date has been known as "Carter's 
Creek. ' ' The proprietor of this seat and the original settler was 
Major Lewis Burwell, who came to the Colony and located 
on Carter's Creek in 1640, and who died in 1658. His wife 
was a Miss Higginson, whose father had signalized himself 
in the wars with the Indians. On a tomb at Carter's Creek 
is found this inscription : 

"To the lasting memorj' of Major Lewis Burwell, of tlie County of 
Gloucester, in Virginia, gentleman, who descended from the ancient fam- 
ily of the Burwells of the Counties of Bedford and Northampton, in Eng- 
land, who nothing more worthy in his birth than virtuous in his life, 
exchanged this life for a better, on the 19th day of November, in the 33d 
year of his age, A. D. 1658." 

His fourth son, Nathaniel Burwell, married Elizabeth, 
eldest daughter of Robert Carter ( ' ' King Carter " ) , and this 
lady, after the death of Major Burwell, married Dr. George 
Nicholas, and was the mother of Robert Carter Nicholas, long 
the Treasurer of Virginia. The eldest son of Major Nathan- 
iel and Elizabeth (Carter) Burwell was Eewis Burwell (of 
"The Grove"), born 1 7 10. He was educated in England, 
and on his return to the Colony, being a man of high char- 
acter and much learning, was called to fill many important 
offices in Virginia. He was a Burgess from Gloucester 



LEWIS BUR WELL. 167 

County in 1736; later, he became a member of the Council, 
and as President of that body succeeded Thomas Lee in the 
administration of affairs in Virginia. During the time that 
Lewis Burwell presided at the head of the government, Hen- 
ing in his ' ' Statutes at Large ' ' records no meeting of the 
General Assembly, though he mentions patents as having been 
signed by Burwell when President of the Council. Major Bur- 
well married in Odlober, 1736, Mary, daughter of Colonel 
Francis and Ann Willis. This Mary Willis was made heiress 
by John Smith, Gentleman, of Gloucester County, Pets worth 
Parish, to the estates of Old and New Purton, by will dated 
May 10, 1735. (See Hening's "Statutes at Large," Vol. 8, 
page 663.) Major Lewis Burwell was relieved from his post 
as chief executive of Virginia by the arrival of Lieutenant- 
Governor Robert Dinwiddie, November 20, 1751. He died 
in 1752. 



LIX. 



ROBERT DINWIDDIE. 

Lieutefiant- Governor. 

November 20, 1751, to January, 1758, 

Robert Dinwiddie was of Scotch descent and the name 
appears in history as far back as 1296. The immediate 
ancestors of Governor Dinwiddie had lived in Glasgow, and 
his father, Robert Dinwiddie, was a merchant of that city. 
His mother was Sarah, daughter of Matthew Gumming, who 
was Bailie of Glasgow in 1691, 1696, and 1699. Governor 
Dinwiddie was born at his father's seat, "Germiston," in 
1693. In December, 1727, he was appointed colle(5lor of the 
customs in the Island of Bermuda, which position he filled until 
1738, when, in acknowledgment of his valuable services in ex- 
posing a long pradliced system of fraud in the colledlion of the 
customs of the West India Islands, he was made " Surveyor 
General of the Customs of the southern ports of the Continent 
of America." This appointment gave rise to some complica- 
tions between Dinwiddie and Virginia. In August, 1743, 
he was specially commissioned to examine into the duties of 
the Colle(5lor of Customs of the Island of Barbadoes, and here 
he exposed to his Government enormous defalcations. In July, 
1 75 1, he was appointed lyieutenant-Governor of Virginia, 
which high position he filled honorabl}' and wisely in a time 
of great anxiety and critical importance. He it was who first 
called young Washington to the public service of his country. 
Hearing that the French had made treaties with all the West- 
ern tribes of Indians, and were building forts on the Ohio 
River, he determined to send a messenger to remonstrate 
against these encroachments. For this difficult and perilous 
enterprise George Washington offered himself to the Gover- 
nor, and it proved to be the flood in the tide of his career which 



ROBERT DINllTDDIE. 169 

led ' ' on to fortune. ' ' Undaunted by the wild.s which had only 
resounded to the war-whoop of the savage or the roar of the 
scarceh' less savage beast, unchecked by rushing mountain 
currents or frozen streams, with nature in all her aspedls sternly 
opposing his onward way, he achieved his mission and 
brought to his Governor a clear and intelligent report of the 
situation on the Ohio. It was decisive of war. The services 
of this young Virginian were highly appreciated. Being one 
day in Williamsburg, he went into the gallery of the House 
of Burgesses, w^here soon he heard the Speaker say, " Gentle- 
men, it is proposed that the thanks of this House be given to 
Major Washington, who now sits in the gallery, for the very 
gallant manner in which he has executed the important trust 
lately imposed in him by his Excellency, Governor Dinwid- 
die." In a moment the House rose as one man, and turning 
towards the blushing young officer, saluted him ; he tried to 
repl}^ but so completely overcome w^as this young hero, who 
had not feared to brave any danger in pursuit of duty, that 
he stood speechless with emotion. At last he found voice to 
say, "Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker!" and then was silent. 
The Speaker called out laughingly, "Major Washington, 
Major Washington, sit down. Your modesty alone is equal 
to 3'our merit." 

In reviewing the situation of America at this interesting 
and trying period, Bancroft thus beautifully introduces upon 
the pages of his history, the man destined to wear the triple 
crown of "First in War, First in Peace, and First in the 
hearts of his Countrymen ' ' : 

"Thus, after long years of strife, of repose, and of strife renewed, Eng- 
land and France solemnly agreed to be at peace. The treaties of Aix-la- 
Chapelle had been negotiated by the ablest statesmen of Europe, in the 
forms of monarchial diplomacy. They believed themselves the arbiters 
of mankind, the pacificators of the world ; rcconstrufking the colonial sys- 
tem on a basis which should endure for ages, and confirming tlie peace of 
Europe by the nice adjustment of material forces. At the very time of 
the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, the woods of Virginia sheltered the youth- 
ful George Washington, who had been born by the side of the Potomac, 
beneath the roof of a Westmoreland planter, and whose lot almost from 
infancy had been that of an orphan. No academy had welcomed him to 
its shades, no college crowned him with its honors; to read, to write, to 

XII 



170 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

cipher, these had liccii his degrees in knowledge. And now, at sixteen 
years of age, in quest of an honest maintenance, encountering the severest 
toil ; cheered onward by being able to write to a school-boy friend, 'Dear 
Richard, a doubloon is my constant gain every day, and sometimes six 
pistoles'; himself his own cook, 'having no spit but a forked stick, no 
plate but a large chip ' ; roaming over spurs of the AUeghanies, and along 
the banks of the Shenandoah ; alive to nature and sometimes ' spending 
the best of the day in admiring the trees and richness of the land ' ; among 
skin-clad savages with their scalps and rattles, or uncovith emigrants 'that 
would never speak English ' ; rarely sleeping in a bed ; holding a bearskin 
a splendid couch ; glad of a resting-place for the night upon a little hay, 
straw, or fodder, and often camping in the forests, where the place nearest 
the fire was a happy luxury, — this stripling surveyor in the woods, with 
no companion but his unlettered associates, and no implements of science 
but his compass and chain, contrasted strangely with the imperial magnifi- 
cence of the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. And yet God had selected, 
not Kannitz nor Newcastle, not a monarch of the House of Hapsburg, nor 
of Hanover, but the Virginia stripling, to give an impulse to human 
affairs ; and as far as events can depend on an individual, had placed the 
rights and the destinies of countless millions in the keeping of the widow's 
son." 

The English Ministry having now determined on an 
offensive policy by sea and land against France, in 1755 a 
fleet was sent into the North American waters, and General 
Braddock arrived in Virginia accompanied by two regiments 
of the regular army, with the appointment of Commander-in- 
Chief. Braddock was unhappily defeated, and it is narrated 
that Washington, who was his volunteer aid-de-camp, though 
in danger of pursuit by Indians, did, on the night after this 
memorable defeat, in the absence of a chaplain, himself per- 
form the last funeral rites over the body of Braddock, a 
soldier holding the candle or lighted torch while the solemn 
words were read. 

The situation of affairs had now become so alarming that 
the Colonists began to organize local companies. The As- 
sembly voted ^40,000 for the service, the Virginia Regiment 
was enlarged to sixteen companies, and the command of the 
same given to George Washington. 

Governor Dinwiddle, after having met the many and 
heavy responsibilities of his position, through failing health 
requested to be relieved from his trust as Governor of Vir- 



kOBER T DIN WW DIE. 1 7 1 

ginia. He sailed for England in January, 1758, after receiv- 
ing voted testimonials of the regard of the Council and of 
the municipal authorities of Williamsburg, the seat of Gov- 
ernment of the Colony. He died at Clifton, Bristol, whither 
he had gone in quest of health, on July 27, 1770, and was 
interred in the Parish church there. 



LX. 



JOHN CAMPBELL. 

Earl of London. 
July, 1756, to 1768. 

John Campbell, son of Hugh, Earl of Loudon, was born 
in 1705, and succeeded to his title in November, 1731. He 
was in 1 756 appointed Commander-in-Chief of the troops in 
North America, but, being detained in England, Major-Gen- 
eral Abercrombie was ordered to proceed immediately to 
America to take command of the troops until his lordship 
should arrive. The Earl was likewise constituted Governor 
of Virginia, and was also invested with such powers as were 
thought necessary to enable him to promote a union among 
the English Colonies. 

The Earl of Loudon arrived in America, July 29, 1756, 
and assumed command of the Army. In the month of Jan- 
uary, 1757, a Council was held at Boston, composed of Lord 
Loudon and the Governors of the New England provinces 
and of Nova Scotia. At this Council his lordship proposed 
that New England should raise 4,000 men for the ensuing 
campaign ; and that requisitions proportionately large should 
be made on New York and New Jersey. The requisitions 
were complied with, and his lordship found himself, in the 
spring, at the head of a very considerable army. In 1758 
Lord Loudon returned to England, and General Abercrombie, 
on whom the chief command of the entire forces for the 
American war had devolved, was now at the-head of 50,000 
men ; the most powerful army ever seen in America. 

It does not appear that the Earl of Loudon ever came to 
Virginia. He was succeeded by Norborne Berkeley, Baron 
de Botetourt, as Governor-in-Chief of this Colony, in 1768. 
He died April 27, 1782. 

173 



LXI. 

j6hN BLAIR. 

President of the Council. 

January, 1758, to June 7, 1758. 

The successes of the French over the English during the 
year 1757 had left the Colonies in a somewhat despondent 
state, Init the animating spirit of Pitt infused hope in Amer- 
ica, and the Colonies, rising in full proportion to the occasion, 
prepared for the coming contest. Notwithstanding the pres- 
sure of events at this juncture, the Colony of Virginia export- 
ed, in 1758, the largest quantit}' of tobacco ever yet pro- 
duced in that Colony in one year ; 70,000 hogsheads of this 
staple were shipped to foreign ports. 

As Governor Dinwiddle had, at his own request, been 
relieved from the post of Governor of Virginia, his place was 
taken in that important office by John Blair, President of the 
Council. 

John Blair was the son of Dr. Archibald Blair, and a 
nephew of the Rev. James Blair, former President of William 
and Mary College. He was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, 
in 1689. He occupied many important positions in the gov- 
ernment ; was a Burgess from James City County, in 1736, 
later, a member of the Council, and as President of that body, 
succeeded to the diredlion of affairs on the departure of Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie for England, in January, 1758, and held the 
position until the arrival of Lieutenant-Governor Francis 
Fauquier, June 7th, 1758. 

During Governor Blair's administration an Adl was passed, 
"augmenting the forces in the pay of this Colony to two 
thousand men," and further recites that " whereas by reason 
of the great scarcit}' of gold and silver in this Colony, the 
taxes imposed by this A(5l cannot l)e colle(5led in time to 



174 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

answer the purposes hereby intended : Be it enadled, by the 
authority aforesaid, That it shall and may be lawfvil for the 
said Treasurer, or the Treasurer for the time being, appointed 
as aforesaid, to issue and emit treasury notes, to answer the 
demands that shall be made upon him for the purposes afore- 
said, so as the whole sum of such notes, so to be issued, 
shall not exceed the sum of thirty-two thousand pounds ; 
which notes, so to be issued, shall be prepared, printed, 
engraved, and numbered, in such form and after such method 
as the said Treasurer shall judge most safe from counterfeits 
and forgeries," etc., etc. 

Thus, while Virginia was bracing herself for the conflidl, 
whereby she might establish Great Britain's claim to sover- 
eignty in the New World, little did she realize that she was 
calling into play forces, which would, ere long, make her the 
untrammeled arbiter of her own destiny. 



LXII. 



FRANCIS FAUQUIER. 

Lieutenant-Governor. 
June 7, 1758, to March 3, 1768. 
Francis Fauquier was born in 1703, and was appointed 
lyieutenant-Governor of Virginia, February ro, 1758. He 
arrived in the Colony on June 7, following. Though he is 
sometimes described as having been a man of fashion, with 
frivolous tastes, he is by others reputed as one of the wisest 
of the colonial governors. Thomas Jefferson says of Gov- 
ernor Fauquier, that he was ' ' the ablest man who had ever 
filled that office." In the first year of his administration, 
the coveted French fortress of Fort du Quesne fell into the 
hands of the English, and Governor Fauquier has the credit 
of having coincided with Washington in his views as to the 
importance of gaining this stronghold. It fell, finally, into 
the hands of the English, without a blow, and with its fall 
ended the war between the French and English, upon the 
frontiers of Virginia. lyouisburg had been conquered by 
the English, who, on July 26, 1758, took entire possession of 
the Island of Cape Breton ; Fort du Quesne fell on Novem- 
ber 25, following, and Ticonderoga, Niagara, and Quebec, 
resulted in the final conquest of Canada. The story of the bat- 
tle upon the Plains of Abraham affords a thrilling picture in 
American history. Wolfe and Montcalm, the central figures 
in that bloody scene, each fell, as only heroes fall. 
The one, the conqueror Wolfe, died in the arms of victory, 
saying with his expiring breath, "Then I die happy"; 
the other, the conquered Montcalm, when told his wound 
was mortal, exclaimed, "I am glad of it; so much 
the better ; I shall not then live to see the surrender of 
Quebec." 



176 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

In the midst of these triumphs to the British arms, the 
King of England, George II., died suddenly, October 25, 
1760, and was succeeded by George III., his grandson. 

Affairs in Virginia now progressed quietly, and her popu- 
lation increased rapidly. Washington, after several years of 
active service against the Indians and the French, had laid 
down his sword and retired for a season to the shades of Mount 
Vernon. Virginia was slowly preparing herself, all uncon- 
scious of her destiny, for those high duties which the future 
held in store for her. In 1765, the passage of "The Stamp 
Adl," in lyondon, waked the Slogan in America. It was 
viewed as a violation of the British Constitution, and as 
destrudlive of the first principles of liberty. At this momen- 
tous period, there arose in Virginia a man whose burning 
eloquence fired the souls and nerved the arms of the Colo- 
nists to strike for "liberty or death." It was a memorable 
day, when in the House of Burgesses, Patrick Henry stood 
holding in his hand the Resolutions (against submitting to 
the Stamp Adl,) which he had traced with a pencil upon the 
leaf of an old book. Portentous hour ! Quivering in the 
balance — a race of vassals, or a great and liberated people ! 
Henry was unknown to fame, and with his plain, coarse 
garb and awkward mien, gave to the world no outward sign 
of the veiled genius hidden there. But, like Olympian Jove, 
he shook his ^gis and the tempest rolled ! Felt were the 
thunder and the lightning of his power, and the Resolutions 
passed. It is much to be regretted that this burst of pas- 
sionate appeal has not been preserved, and that only its 
conclusion has come down to us. " Caesar," he cried, " had 

his Brutus, Charles I. his Cromwell, and George III." 

Here he was interrupted by loud cries of ' ' Treason ! 
treason ! ' ' Henry knew that he stood upon the edge of a 
precipice, that the daring words he would have uttered would 
reveal too much ; so with a prudence as masterful as was 
his valor, he continued, " and George III. may profit by 
their example. If this be treason, make the most of it ! " 
The news of the adoption of these celebrated Resolutions 
spread like wildfire throughout the whole country. The}' set 



FRANCIS FAUQUIER. 177 

forth the facts that Virginians had a right to all the privileges 
of English subjects ; that, having no representatives in 
Parliament, they should not be taxed by Parliament; that 
the right of these Colonies to tax themselves had always been 
recognized by the Kings and Parliaments of England ; and 
that no one had a right to tax Virginians but the General 
Assembly of Virginia, and to submit to anything else would 
destroy American freedom. The other Colonies adopted 
similar resolutions, and determined that nothing bearing 
the stamp of England should come into the country. This 
had the effect of encouraging home institutions, and was 
another step in the gradual cutting loose from old relations. 

Governor Fauquier, in the progress of all these stirring 
events, preser^-ed the respect of the people over whom he 
presided. He died March 3, 1768, and until the arrival of 
Eord Botetourt in October following, the government again 
devolved on John Blair, President of the Council. 

The following address and resolutions of the patriots of 
the Northern Neck of Virginia, in the year 1765, immediately 
after the passage of the Stamp Act, were drawn up by Richard 
Henry Eee. It is said to have been the first public associa- 
tion in the land for resistance to that Act, and fittingly finds 
a place under this brief review of Governor Fauquier's term 
of office. 

" Roused by danger, and alanned at attempts, foreign and domestic, to 
reduce the people of this country' to a state of abjedl and detestable slavery, 
l3y destroying that free and happy constitution of government under which 
they have hitherto lived ; We, who subscribe this paper, have associated, 
and do bind ourselves to each other, to God, and to our country, by the 
firmest ties that religion and virtue can frame, most sacredly and punctu- 
ally to stand by, and with our lives and fortunes to support, maintain, and 
defend each other in the observance and execution of these following 
Articles : 

''First. — We declare all due allegiance and obedience to our lawful 
Sovereign, George the Third, King of Great Britain. And we determine 
to the utmost of our power to preserve the laws, the peace, and good order 
of this Colony, as far as is consistent with the preservation of ovu- constitu- 
tional rights and liberty. 

''Secondly. — As we know it to be the birthright privilege of every 
British subjedl, (and of the people of Virginia as being such,) founded on 



178 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

reason, law, and conipadl, that he cannot be legally tried, but by his peers, 
and that he cannot be taxed but by the consent of a Parliament, in which 
he is represented by persons chosen by the people, and who themselves 
pay a part of the tax they impose on others : If, therefore, any person or 
persons shall attempt, by any action or proceeding, to deprive this Colony 
of those fundamental rights, we will immediately regard him or them as 
the most dangerous enemy of the communitj- ; and we will go to any 
extremity, not only to prevent the success of such attempts, but to stig- 
matize and punish the offender. 

" Thirdly. — As the Stamp A(5l does absolutely diredl the property oi 
the people to be taken from them without their consent expressed by their 
representatives, and as in many cases it deprives the British American 
subject of his right to trial by jury, we do determine, at every hazard, and 
pa3ang no regard to danger or to death, we will exert every faculty to 
prevent the execution of the said Stamp A6t, in an)' instance whatsoever, 
within this Colony. And every abandoned wretch, who shall l)e so lost to 
virtue and public good, as wickedly to contribute to the introduction or 
fixture of the Stamp A6t in this Colony by using stamp paper, or by any 
other means, we will, with the utmost expedition, convince all such prof- 
ligates that immediate danger and disgrace shall attend their prostitute 
purposes. 

'■'Fourthly. — That the last Article may most surely and effectually be 
executed, we engage to each other, that whenever it shall be known to any 
of this Association that any person is so conducting himself as to favor 
the introduction of the Stamp Act, that immediate notice shall be given to 
as many of the Association as possil^le, and that every individual so in- 
formed shall, with expedition, repair to a place of meeting to be appointed 
as near the scene of action as may be. 

" Fifthly. — Each Associator shall do his true endeavor to obtain as 
many signers to this Association as he possibly can. 

" Sixthly. — If any attempt shall be made on the liberty or property ot 
any Associator, for any action or thing done in consequence of this Agree- 
ment, we do most solenmlj- bind ourselves liy the sacred engagements above 
entered into, at the utmost risk of our lives and fortunes, to restore such As- 
sociate to his liberty, and to protect him in the enjoyment of his property. 
" In testimony of the good faith with which we resolve to execute this 
Association, we have this 27th day of February, 1766, in Virginia, put our 
hands and seals hereto. 

Richard Henry L,ee. William Sydnor. 

Will. Robinson. John Monroe. 

Lewis Willis. William Cocke. 

Thos. Lud. Ivce. Willm. Grayson. 

Samuel Washington. Wm. Brockenl)rough. 

Charles Washington. Saml. Selden. 

Moore Fauutleroy. Richd. L,ee. 

Francis lyightfoot Lee. Daniel Tibbs. 



FRANCrS FAUQUIER. 



179 



Thomas Jones. 
Rodham Kenner. 
Spencer M. Ball. 
Richard Mitchell. 
Joseph Murdock. 
Richd. Parker. 
Spence Monroe. 
John Watts. 
Robt. Lovell. 
John Blagge. 
Charles Weeks. 
Willm. Booth. 
Geo. Turberville. 
Alvin Moxley. 
Wni. Flood. 
John Ballantine, Junr. 
William Lee. 
Thos. Chilton. 
Richard Buckuer. 
Jos. Pierce. 
Will. Chilton. 
John Williams. 
John Blackwell. 
Winder S. Kenner. 
Wm. Bronaugh. 
Win. Peirce. 
John Berryman. 
John Dickson. 
John Broone. 
Edwd. Sanford. 
Charles Chilton. 
Edwd. Sanford. 
Daniel McCarty. 
Jer. Rush. 
Edwd. Ransdcll. 
Townshend Dade. 
John Ash ton. 
W. Brent. 
Francis Foushee. 
John Smith, Junr. 
Wm. Ball. 
Thos. Barnes. 
Jos. Blackwell. 
Reuben Meriwether. 
Edw. Mountjoy. 



Francis Thornton, Junr. 
Peter Russt. 
John L,ee, Jr. 
Francis Waring. 
John Upshaw. 
Meriwether Smith. 
Thos. Roane. 
Jas. Edmondson. 
Jas. Webb, Junr. 
John Edmondson. 
Jas. Banks. 
Smith Young. 
Laur. Washington. 
W. Roane. 
Rich. Hodges. 
Jas. Upshaw. 
Jas. Booker. 
A. Montague. 
Rich'd Jeffries. 
John Suggett. 
John S. Woodcock. 
Robt. Wormeley Carter. 
John Beale, Jimr. 
John Newton. 
Will. Beale, Junr. 
Chs. Mortimer. 
John Edmondson, Jr. 
Charles Beale. 
Peter Grant. 
Thompson Mason. 
Jona. Beckwith. 
Jas. Samford. 
John Belfield. 
W. Smith. 

John Augt. Washington. 
Thos. Belfield. 
Edgecomb Suggett. 
Henry Francks. 
John Bland, Junr. 
Jas. Emerson. 
Thos. Logan. 
Jo. Milliken. 
Ebenezer Fisher. 
Hancock Eustace. 
John Richards. 



180 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

Wm. J. Mountjoy. Thos. Jett. 

Thos. Mouutjoy. Thos. Douglas. 

John Moviiitjoy. Max. Rol^inson. 

Gilbt. Campbell. John Orr. 

Jos. I,ane. 



LXIII. 

SIR JEFFREY AMHERST. 

Governor-i7i- Chief. 

1763-1768. 
Perhaps none of the Colonial Governors appears in the 
list of Virginia's executives with such a distinguished mili- 
tary record as Sir Jeffrey Amherst ; none certainly had his 
dreams of ambition more fully realized, and none reaped in 
ampler measure the honorable rewards of a grateful country. 
He had the honor of laying Canada at the foot of the British 
throne, and of destroying French supremacy in this coveted 
possession. Lord Jeffrey Amherst was descended from an 
ancient Kentish family near Seven-Oaks, where he was born 
in 1 7 17. He early devoted himself to the profession of Arms, 
receiving an Ensign's commission when only fourteen years 
of age. When twenty-five years old, he a(5ted as aide-de- 
camp to Lord lyigonier in the battles of Dettingen and Fon- 
tenoy, and afterwards served on the staff of the Duke of 
Cumberland at Laffield and Hastenbeck. In 1756 he 
received the colonelcy of a regiment, and was appointed 
Major-General, and in the summer of 1758 commanded the 
expedition against Louisburg, which, together with the 
whole island of Cape Breton, surrendered to his arms. The 
capture of Fort du Quesne, Niagara, Ticonderoga, and Que- 
bec in due time followed, and in 1760, the whole of Canada 
being reduced. General Amherst received for his share in 
these exploits the thanks of the House of Commons and the 
Order of the Bath. In 1763, he was made Governor of Vir- 
ginia ; in 1770, Governor of the Isle of Jersey, and in 1772, 
Lieutenant-General of the ordnance, and officiating Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the English forces. Besides these and 
several other military honors, he was in 1776 created a peer, 

181 



182 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

by the title of Baron Amherst of Holmesdale, in the County 
of Kent. On the breaking up of the ' ' North ' ' administration, 
Lord Amherst was removed from the commandership-in- 
chief and the lieutenancy of the ordnance, but in 1787 
received another patent of peerage as Baron Amherst of Mon- 
treal, with remainder to his nephew, William Pitt Amherst. 
On the staff being reappointed in 1793, he was once more 
called upon to acft as Commander-in-Chief. In 1795 he 
resigned the commandership-in-chief to the Duke of York, 
and in 1796 received the rank of Field Marshal. He died in 
1797, in the eighty-first year of his age. 

lyord Amherst was twice married, but left no children. He 
was made Governor of Virginia in 1763, but when, in 1768, it 
was desired by the Ministry that he should reside in the Col- 
ony, he resigned the office and was succeeded in July, by Lord 
Botetourt. Amherst County, Virginia, was named in honor of 
Lord Amherst. He is represented as a man of colledled and 
temperate mind, not given to parade or ostentation, a stri(5l 
officer, yet the soldier's friend. It is also written in history 
that " Sir Jeffrey Amherst, in his advice to the Ministry, stren- 
uously opposed the repeal of the Stamp Adl." How different 
was it with the noble Pitt ! In this present age of the glory and 
power of America, when the public mind turns to commemorate 
the virtues and valor and talents of her earliest and best friends, 
should William Pitt be quite forgotten ? Foreseeing the sep- 
aration of the American Colonies from the mother country, if 
the arbitrary measures then adopted should be continued, he 
advocated in the House of Commons, especially in 1766, a 
conciliatory policy and the repeal of the Stamp Adl. In the 
House of Lords, as Lord Chatham, he continued to recom- 
mend the abandonment of the coercive measures employed 
against America, particularly in 1774; but his warning was 
rejedled, and in 1776 the Colonies declared themselves inde- 
pendent. He still, however, labored in the cause, and used 
all his efforts to induce the government to effedt a reconcili- 
ation with the American states ; and as he was speaking with 
his accustomed energy on the subje(5l in the House of Lords, 
April 7, 1778, he fell. He died on the nth of the following 



SIR JEFFREY AMHERST. 183 

inontli. Who that has followed his burning appeals for Amer- 
ica can doubt, if he had lived on this side of the Atlantic, that 
his name today would be a household word, as deeply rever- 
enced as anj^ of the Revolutionary heroes? With deep emo- 
tion do we read these words of one of England's most illus- 
trious statesmen, orators, and patriots, and gratefully remem- 
ber him, who turned from his high estate of power and 
grandeur to become a party in the distant colonial struggle : 

" On a question that may mortally wound the freedom of three mil- 
lions of virtuous and brave subjects beyond the Atlantic Ocean, I cannot 
be silent. America, being neither really nor virtually represented in 
Westminster, cannot be held legally, or constitutionally, or reasonably, 
subject to obedience to any money bill of this kingdom. The Colonies 
are equally entitled with yourselves to all the natural rights of mankind, 
and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen ; equally bound b}- the laws, 
and equally participating of the Constitution of this free country." * 

"Taxation is no part of the governing power. The taxes are a 
voluntary gift and grant of the Commons alone. In an American tax, 
what do we do ? We, your Majesty's Commons of Great Britain, give and 
grant to your Majesty — what ? Our own property ? No. We give and 
grant to your Majesty the property of your Majesty's Commons in 
America. It is an absurditj' in terms. ' ' * " * * * * 

"The Commons of America, represented in their several Assemblies, 
have ever been in possession of the exercise of this, their Constitutional right, 
of giving and granting their own mone)-. They would have been slaves 
if they had not enjoyed it." * * * * * * * * 

" I neuer shall own the justice of taxing America internally, until she 
enjoys the right of representation." '•'" * * '•" * * 

" No man more highly esteems and honors the British troops than I 
do ; I know their virtues and their valor ; I know they can achieve any- 
thing but impossibilities ; and I know that the conquest of British 
America is an impossibility. You cannot, my lords, you cannot conquer 
America. * * * * ■•' * * "■■' * * * 

"You may swell every expense, and accumulate every assistance, and 
extend your traffic to the shambles of every German despot ; your 
attempts will be forever vain and impotent — doubly so, indeed, from this 
mercenary aid on which you rely ; for it irritates to an incurable resent- 
ment the minds of your adversaries, to overrun them with the mercenary 
sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the 
rapacity of hireling cruelt)'. If I were an American, as I am an English- 
man, while a foreign troop remained in my country I never would lay 
down my arms ; no, never, never, never ! " 

He fought for the Colonies afar, upon the battle-field of 



184 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

parliamentary debate, and in the fervor of his demand for 
justice to the oppressed, glowing with thoughts that had for 
years weighed heavy on his heart — he fell, all suddenly, into 
the arms of death — but, from his pinnacle of fame, his dying 
plea was for — America ! Macaulay thus describes him when 
at the zenith of his power : 

" The situation which Pitt occupied at the close of the reign of George 
the Second was the most enviable ever occupied by any public man in 
English history. He had conciliated the King ; he domineered over the 
House of Commons ; he was adored by the people ; he was admired by all 
Europe. He was the first Englishman of his time, and he had made 
England the first country in the world. The Great Commoner — the name 
by which he was often designated — might look down with scorn on coro- 
nets and garters. The nation was drunk with joy and pride. The Parlia- 
ment was as qiiiet as it had been under Pelham. The old party distinctions 
were almost effaced ; nor was their place yet si;pplicd by distinctions of a 
yet more important kind. A new generation of country squires and rectors 
had arisen, who knew not the vStuarts. The Dissenters were tolerated ; 
the Catholics not cruelly persecuted ; the Church was drowsy and indul- 
gent. The great civil and religious conflict which began at the Reforma- 
tion seemed to have terminated in vmiversal repose. Whigs and Tories, 
Churchmen and Puritans, spoke with equal reverence of the Constitution, 
and with equal enthusiasm of the talents, virtues, and services of the 
Minister." 

And now that in this country, the Washington monument 
towers all other shafts beyond ; now that Virginia has raised 
her triumphal memorial at Old Yorktown, and Vermont has 
lifted her battle column at Bennington ; now that Columbus 
will be remembered in the greatest exhibition of the world's 
progress ever seen, should America forget the noble Pitt, 
he who defied kings and princes and the sweet voice of 
popular applause, to tell the story of her wrongs, and who 
planted his name on the side of her constitutional liberties ? 
"No, never, never, never ! '^ 



LXIV. 



JOHN BLAIR. 

President oj the Council. 

March 3, 1768, to Ocftober, 176S. 

Lord Botktourt was appointed Govenior-iu-Chief of 
Virginia in July, 1768, though he did not arrive in the Col- 
ony until the Odlober following. Governor Fauquier having 
died March 3, 1768, until the arrival of Lord Botetourt in the 
following Ocflober, John Blair, "President of the Council," 
was the adling Governor of the Colony. During the trying- 
period of the incumbency of President Blair, his ability and 
fidelity were conspicuously displayed. Although Parliament 
had repealed the obnoxious Stamp A(5l in 1766, the next year 
witnessed their imposing duties to be paid by the Colon^'sts on 
paper, glass, painters' colors, and teas imported into the Col- 
onies. This, with the attempt to enforce the Adl to provide 
quarters for British soldiers in the Colonies, at the expense of 
the Colonies, again excited public indignation and alarm. 
Massachusetts guardedly and relucftantly consented, but New 
York declined making the provision demanded. For this 
offence, Parliament pas.sed an Adl for restraining the Assembly 
of New York from passing any Act until they should comply 
with this requisition. This arbitrar}^ Acft fanned the flame 
of suspicion and discontent among all the Colonies. "An 
Act for suspending the Legislature of that province," said 
Richard Henry Lee, "hangs like a flaming sword over our 
heads, and requires, by all means, to be removed." Again 
Parliament passed an Acfl for establishing a Custom House in 
America in 1767. The discussions occasioned by the Stamp 
Acl had convinced the Coloni.sts of their exemption from par- 
liamentary taxation, and so they were on the alert at every 
attempt of Ivngland in this direction. This new occasion of 

.\III 18.5 



186 THE GOVERNORS OE I'lRCEXIA. 

dissatisfaclion roused afresh the suspicions of the Colonists 
and some Essays on Colonial rights under the name of ' ' Let- 
ters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the 
British Colonies" had a rapid and extensive circulation in 
America. The souls of men here were being prepared for 
the deadly confli<5l — the conflidl for "liberty or death!" 
Massachusetts sent a petition to the King against these 
recent a(5ls of Parliament and issued a circular letter to the 
other Colonies to unite in suitable measures to obtain redress. 
Virginia sent a memorial to the Hou.se of Lords and a remon- 
strance to the House of Commons, complaining of the taxes 
imposed, and her acflion and that of Massachusetts were 
fully endorsed by the House of Assembly in Georgia. 

During this stormy period Governor Blair held the reins 
of government in Virginia from March to October of 1768, 
the la.st patent signed by him bearing date the 24th 0(5lober, 
1768. He had .served for several years as Deputy Auditor of 
the Colony and had also been a visitor of William and Mary 
College. His life was one of varied usefulness in a time that 
tried men's souls. He died November 5, 1771, and some of 
his descendants have been distinguished in the annals of Vir- 
<:inia. 



LXV. 



NORBORNE BERKELEY. 

(baron DE BOTETOURT.) 

Governor-in-CJiief. 
0<5lober 28, 1768, to Ocflober 15, 1770. 

It is said by Bancroft that 

" Botetourt, the new Governor of Virginia, arrived on the James River 
in the delicious season of the fall of the leaf, when that region enjoys a 
nian3'-tinted sky and a soft, but invigorating air. He was channed with 
the scenes on which he entered ; his house seemed admirable, the grounds 
around it well planted and watered by beautiful rills. Everything was just 
as he could have wished. Coming up without state to an unprovided 
residence, he was asked abroad every day, and, asa guest, gave pleasure and 
was pleased. He thought nothing could be better than the disposition 
of the Colony, and augured well of everything that was to happen. 

" He was persuaded that the new Assemljl}' would come together in 
good humor, which he was resolved not wantonly to disturb." 

But the year after Lord Botetourt arrived, the Assembly 
passed two resolutions: First, that Virginia would no longer 
submit to be taxed by England; and, second, that she would 
not send her criminals to England to be tried. Lord Bote- 
tourt knew that Virginia was right in this, but he thought 
that his duty to his King compelled him to check what 
seemed rebellion. He said to the Assembly : "I have heard 
of your resolves, and augur ill of their effe<5ls ; you have 
made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are dissolved 
accordingly." But, though the Governor dissolved the 
Assembly, he could not disperse its members. The spirit of 
freedom was aroused in every patriot breast, and instead of 
returning (juietly to their homes, the Burgesses met at a 
private house in Williamsburg and adopted resolutions which 
Washington had l)r()ught with him from Mount Vernon, and 

187 



188 rilE COVER \ORS OF VIROISIA. 

"which formed a well-digested, stringent, and pracflicable 
scheme of non-importation, until all the ' unconstitutional ' 
revenue adls should be repealed." They also made a special 
covenant with one another not to import any slaves, nor 
purchase any imported. These compa(5ls were signed by 
Peyton Randolph, Richard Bland, Archibald Cary, Robert 
Carter Nicholas, Richard Henry Lee, Washington, Jefferson, 
Henry, Carter Braxton, Nelson, and all the Burgesses there 
assembled, and were then sent throughout the Colony for 
every man to sign. 

Virginia stirred the smouldering spirit of Pennsylvania to 
endorse her acflion ; Delaware adopted the resolutions of the 
Old Dominion, and every Colony south of her followed her 
example. So determined were the colonists, that when 
some time later a vessel loaded with tea entered Boston 
Harbor, a number of citizens disguised as Indians went on 
board of the ship at night, and threw overboard three hun- 
dred and forty-two chests of tea. 

America confined its issue with Great Britain to the 
repeal of the Acft imposing a duty on Tea, because of the prin- 
ciple of the Adl, expressed in the preamble. 

England was, at this time, in a most perplexed condition 
as to her policy. Junius, with his firebrands, had heated the 
atmosphere of society ; the Ministry often divided, and the 
King, unequal to the situation, had almost filled the measure 
of colonial dissatisfadlion, and Revolution in America, hover- 
ing on the confines of Tyranny-, was steadily taking form, and 
pa.ssing from an idea into an a(5lion. 

Governor Botetourt having received assurances from the 
Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
that the Ministry would advocate a repeal of the obnoxious 
taxes, the relations between the Governor and the colonial 
legislative bodies were fully restored ; but, soon finding that 
he had been misled, Botetourt indignantly demanded his 
recall. vShortly after, and it is asserted, on account of his 
peculiar embarrassments, he fell sick, and died on Ocflober 
15' ^11^- H^is death doubtless was hastened by his troubles. 
Governor Botetourt was admired and respe(5led l)y \'irgin- 



NO h' BORNE HhlRKELEY. 189 

ians, and their appreciation of his worth is shown by their 
erecfling a monument to his memory at Williamsburg, and 
naming one of their most beautiful counties after him. His 
example of courtes}' and patience in public life, his genial 
affability in the social sphere, and of high honor everywhere, 
his fidelity to his people, and his noble Christian charadler, 
are still cherished memories among the people he loved so 
well. 



LXVI. 

WILLIAM NELSON. 

Prcsidoit of tlie Council. 
Odlober 15, rjyo, to August, 1771. 

After having l)een President of the Council for a long- 
term of years, on the decease of Lord Botetourt, William 
Nelson became the Acfling Governor of the Colony. He was 
the son of Thomas Nelson, who came to America from Pen- 
riff, near the border of Scotland, and hence was known as 
" Scotch Tom." The same settled at York, in Virginia, 
and was the founder of that towai, which was laid out in 1705. 
His eldest son, Thomas, was known as " Secretary' Nelson," 
because so long Secretary of the Co\incil ; and the second 
son, William, or " President Nelson," is the subjecft of this 
notice. He was born in 1711, and was the father of the 
patriotic General Thomas Nelson, of Revolutionary fame. 

William Nelson is said to have laid the corner-stone of 
the historic Nelson House at Yorktown. Though an infant, 
he was held by his nurse, and the brick laid in his apron 
and passed through his little hands. This mansion de- 
vScended to President Nelson's eldest son, General Thomas 
Nelson, and was his residence until the threatened siege of 
York by the English, induced him to remove his family to 
" Offle3%" in Hanover County. During this siege the Nelson 
House was occupied by Lord Cornwallis, and General Nel- 
son's unselfish desire for its destrudlion is a fitting illustration 
of the spirit which made \'irginia free. 

To quote from another, in describing the situation of this 
now celebrated town : 

" The river is full a mile wide at York, which is clc\cn miles from its 
mouth, and is seen strelchiii.t^ ilself away until il merges itself into the 

190 



WILLIAM XLLSON. 191 

Chesapeake Bay. The sun rises imnicdialcly over the mouth of the river, 
and the water is tinged with the rainbow hues of heaven. We have 
watched with much interest the decline of day from the New York Battery, 
but we doubt if New York Harbor— com pared, as it is, with the Bay of 
Naples — ever presented to the eve a more enchanting spectacle than York 
River in its morning glory. Beautiful for .situation is old York, stretching 
east and west on as noble a sheet of water as rolls beneath the sun." 

How such a scene as this must have nerved the arm of 
patriots, and warmed the heart of ever}- son of liberty in the 
fight for freedom. And hozv well they fought, that monument 
at Yorktown, which commemorates the hundred years of 
liberty they bought, now tells the tale. 

President NeLson presided over the affairs of Virginia 
(hiring an exciting period, but the life of the Colony seems to 
have progressed under his judicious sway. He died No- 
vember 19, 1772, and the following extracfl from a printed 
sermon on his death, by Mr. Camm, President of William 
and Mary College, will give some idea of his chara(5ter and 
of the position he held among his fellow-men. He was 

"The kind and indulgent father, without suffering the excess of fondness 
to take off his eye from the true and best interests of his children ; the 
tender husband, the affectionate brother, the useful and entertaining 
friend, the kind and generous master. His hospitality was extensive and 
liberal, yet judicious, and not set free from the restraints of reason and 
religion. It was not a blind propensity to profuseness, or a passion for a 
name, l)y which he corrupted the morals of his friends and neighbors. 
He was no encourager of intemperance or riot, or any practice tending to 
injure the health, the repiitation, the fortunes, or the religious attainments 
of his company. His charities were many, and disjjcnsed with choice 
and discretion, and so as to be most serviceable to the receivers and the 
least oppressive to their modesty. As one of the first and most respectable 
merchants in this dominion, he had great opportunity of being acquainted 
with the circumstances of man}- people whose cases otherwise would have 
escaped his knowledge. This knowledge was often turned to their advan- 
tage whose affairs fell under his consideration. I think 1 shall have the 
concurring voice of the public with me when I say, that his own gain by 
trade was not more sweet to him than the help which he hereby received 
toward becoming a general benefactor. He was an instance of what 
abundance of good may be done by a prudent and conscientious man, 
without impoverishing himself or his connections — nay, while his fortunes 
arc improving. An estate r:nscd with an unblemished rp])utation, and 



192 THE GOVERWORS OE I'TRGINfA. 

diffused from humane and devout motives in the service of multitudes as 
well as the owner's, it may reasonably be expected will wear well, and 
have the blessing of Providence to attend and protect it from generation 
to generation." 

Among the tombstones in the old churchyard at York, 
Virginia, may be seen one with the following inscription : 

" Here lies the body of the Honorable William Nelson, Esquire, late 
President of his Majesty's Council in this Dominion, in whom the love of 
man and the love of God so restrained and enforced each other, and so 
invigorated the mental powers in general, as not only to defend him from 
the vices and follies of his age and country, but, also to render it a matter 
of difficult decision in what part of laudable condiict he most excelled ; 
whether in the tender and endearing accomplishments of domestic life, or 
in the more arduous duties of a wider circiiit ; whether as a neighbor, a 
gentleman, or a magistrate ; whether in the graces of hospitality or piety. 
Reader, if you feel the spirit of that exalted ardour which aspires to the 
felicity of conscious virtue, animated by those consolations and divine 
admonitions, perform the task, and expect the distinction of the righteous 
man. He died the 19th day of NovemVjer, Anno Domini 1772, aged 61." 



LXVII. 

JOHN MURRAY. 

(?:ari. dunmore.) 

Govenior-in- Cliiff. 
July, 1771, to June, 1775. 

Earl Dunmore had been appointed Governor of New 
York, January, 1770, and of Virginia in July, 1771. He 
was born in 1732, and was descended in the female line from 
the ro3^al house of Stuart. He succeeded to the peerage in 
1756, and is described as a man of culture — this, indeed, 
seems to be the only commendation which history accords 
him. 

The people of Virginia, conciliated by Lord Dunmore's 
apparent friendliness, desired through their Assembl}' to 
honor permanently his name, and that of his eldest son, 
George, Lord Fincastle. By Acfts passed February, 1772, 
the Counties of Berkeley and Dunmore were created from 
Frederick County, and the County of Fincastle, created from 
the County of Botetourt. But as time went on, the relations 
between the Governor and his people changed, and Dunmore 
and Fincastle became extincft names in the list of Virginia 
Counties. Dunmore was changed to Shenandoah, and 
Finca.stle was divided into Kentucky, Washington, and 
Montgomery. 

Bancroft describes Dunmore as a man who came to Amer- 
ica "to amass a fortune, and in his passion for sudden gain, 
cared as little for the policy of the Ministers or his instruc- 
tions from the Crown, as for the rights of property, the 
respe(5live limits of jurisdi(5lion of the Colonies, or their civil 
and political privileges. To get money for himself was his 
whole system." He became arl)itr:ir\- in his rule in \'irginia 

r.u 



194 THE GOVERNORS OF I'IRCINIA. 

—prorogued the House of Burgesses from time to time as it 
suited his pleasure, until at last, a forgery of the paper cur- 
rency of the Colony compelled him to call the Assembly 
together again, by proclamation, March 4, 1773. 

An Knglish armed revenue vessel having been burned in 
Narragansett Bay, an A(5l of Parliament passed, making such 
offences punishable with death, and ordering the accused to 
be sent to England for trial. This was in diredl ^•iolation of 
Virginia's remonstrance in 1769, and thus was another torch 
added to the fire of liberty which was spreading far and wide 
over the continent. 

During these dark and threatening da^^s, some of the \'ir- 
ginia patriots were in the habit of meeting together in the 
evening, in a private room in the Old Ralegh Tavern at 
Williamsburg. Here they laid their plans and here the}- 
pledged a common vow to make tlieir country free. Whether 
that vow should become a realit}-, rested on Virginia. Her 
Assembly came together on the 4th of March, 1773. Says 
Bancroft : 

"Its members had authentic information of the proceedings of the 
Town of Boston, and public rumors had reached them of the commission 
for incjuiring into the affairs of Rhode Island. They had read and 
approved of the answers which the Council and the House, of Massachusetts, 
had made in January, to the speech of Hutchinson, their execrated 
Cjovernor. They formed themselves, therefore, into a committee of the 
whole House, on the state of the Colony, and in that committee, Dabney 
Carr. of Charlotte, a young statesman of brilliant genius as well as fervid 
patriotism, moved a series of Resolutions for a system of intercolonial 
committees of correspondence. His plan included a thorough union of 
Councils throughout the continent. If it should succeed and be ado])ted 
by the other Colonies, America would stand before the world as a Confed- 
eracy- The measure was supported 1)\- Richard Henry Lee, with an 
eloquence which never passed awa}' from the memory of his hearers; l)y 
Patrick Henry, with more commanding majesty. The Assembl}- did 
what greatness of mind counselled ; and they did it quietly, as if it were 
but natural to them to a(?t with magnanimity. On Friday, the twelfth of 
March, the Resolutions were reported to the House and unanimously 
adopted. They appointed their committee, on which appear the names 
of Rland and Lee. of Henry and Carr and Jefferson. Their resolves were 
sent to every Colony, with a request that each would appoint its Com- 
mittee to communicate from time to time with that of\'irginia. In this 



JOHN mi^RRAV. 195 

manner, Virginia laid the foundation of our Union." '•■ * * 

" The associates of Dabney Carr were spared for further service to 
humanity. He, himself, was cut down in his prime, and passed away 
like a shadow ; l)nt the name of him who, at this moment of crisis, 
heckoncd the Colonies onward to union, must not perish from the memory 
of his countrymen."" 

Richard Henrj' Lee is said by others to have been the au- 
thor of the plan of inter-colonial committees of correspondence, 
and that it was in the Old Ralegh Tavern agreed that Can- 
should present the matter to the House of Burgesses. On the 
day after the dissolution of this Assembly the Committee ap- 
pointed by it addressed a circular to the other American Colo- 
nies. Thus, steadily were the battalions of freedom forming ! 
"Glorious Virginia," cried the Assembly of Rhode Island, 
glowing with admiration for ' ' its patriotic and illustrious 
House of Burgesses," and this brave little New England 
Colony was the first to follow the example of the Old Domin- 
ion, "by elecfting its committee and sending its circular 
through the land." 

We now enter upon a i:)eriod of misrule which soon event- 
uated in the acflivities of a Revolution. In 1773, the last 
la'cvs were passed in Virginia under the colonial government. 
In 1774, no laws were passed. At the As.sembly which met 
June I, 1775, no laws were enadled. Governor Dunmore 
dissolved on the 26th May, 1774, an Assembly, because the 
House of Burgesses had by a resolution on the 24th of May, 
set apart the i.st day of June (the day on which the Boston 
Port Bill took effedl) as a day of "fasting, humiliation, and 
prayer, ' ' and ordered a sermon to be preached suitable to the 
occasion. On the di.ssolution of the As.sembly by Dun- 
more, the Burgesses repaired immediately to the Ralegh 
Tavern, and in the "Apollo" room adopted resolutions 
against the use of tea and other imported commodities, and 
recommended an annual Congress of representatives of the 
Colonies. On the 29th of May, the Burgesses held a 
meeting, at which Peyton Randolph presided, and they is- 
sued a Circular calling an assembly of deputies to meet in 
convention in \\'illiaiiisl)nrg, the i st of .Xnuusl follow- 



106 THE COl'liRNl-iRS OF llRCTXfA. 

ing. This was the first pul)lic Revolutionary assemblage. 
And now, in the midst of turmoil and distress at the 
seat of government, the war-whoop of the savage was again 
heard on the frontiers of the Colony. The white men 
seem to have commenced the trouble, or rather to have pun- 
ished small offences of the Indians, by the .spilling of blood. 
This roused the tribes to fury and they wreaked their ven- 
geance on the frontier settlements. An arm 3^ was raised and 
placed under the command of General Lewis, who marched 
to Point Pleasant, where the Kanawha River empties into 
the Ohio. Here ensued a bloody battle. The Indians were 
led on by a gigantic warrior named "Cornstalk," and the}' 
fought with great de.speration. When all seemed lost for the 
Virginians, a reinforcement arrived under Colonel Fleming, 
who, adopting the Indian method of shooting from behind 
trees, turned the tide of battle, which finally resulted in a 
complete, though dearh' bought, vidtor}-. The Virginians 
lost 140 men, among whom were many valuable officers. 
Governor Dunmore, who had promised to join General 
Lewis, took another diredl;ion, and some eighty miles distant, 
made his camp. Not to his prowess as a .soldier, but to his 
position as Governor, do we read that "Lord Dunmore 
secured a treaty of peace with the savages." Dunmore now 
concluded a treaty with the various Indian tribes, and at this 
pacification the celebrated speech of Logan, the Caj'Uga 
chief, was delivered. The circumstances relating to this 
subjecft are, according to Thomas Jefferson, as follows: 

"In the s])ring of the jcar 1774, !i i'ohl)ery was coiiimitted by some 
Indians on certain land-adventurers on the river Ohio. The whites in 
that quarter, according to their custom, undertook to punish this outrage 
in a summary way. Captain Michael Cresap, and a certain Daniel Great- 
house, leading on these parties, surprised, at different times, travelling 
and hunting parties of the Indians, having their women and children with 
them, and murdered many. Among these were unfortunately the family 
of I^ogan, a chief celel)rated in peace and war, and long distinguished as 
a friend of the whites. This unworthy return provoked his vengeance. 
He accordingly signalized himself in the war which ensvied. In the 
autunm of the same year a decisive battle was fought at the mouth of the 
Circat Kahawav, l)ct\\ecn the collected forces of the Shawaucsc, Mingocs 



JOIIX MlRhWY. 197 

and Dclawarcs, and a detachment of the \'irginia militia. The Indians 
were defeated and sued for peace. Logan, however, disdained to be seen 
among the suppliants. But, lest the sincerity of a treaty should be dis- 
trusted, from which so distinguished a chief absented himself, he sent, by 
a messenger, the following speech to be delivered to Lord Dunmorc : 

" 'I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin 
hungry and he gave him not meat ; if ever he came cold and naked and 
he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, 
Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my 
love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, 
" Logan is the friend of white men." I had even thought to have lived 
with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last 
spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of 
Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop 
of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for 
revenge. I have sought it ; I have killed many ; I have fidl}- glutted my 
vengeance ; for ni}- countr}' I rejoice at the beams of peace ; but do not 
harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. 
He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for 
Logan ? Not one.' " 

Karly in 1775, the people of Virginia called another Con- 
vention, which met in Richmond on the 20th March. ITpon 
an eminence which is now called "Church Hill," stands an 
old wooden church, and it was in this " St. John's Church " 
that the Convention met to deliberate upon the situation. 
Here Patrick Henry voiced the people's hopes and sounded 
that tocsin of liberty whose peals resounded over all the land. 
Lord Dunmore, alarmed at the threatening aspecft of affairs, 
caused the removal of the powder from the magazine at Wil- 
liamsburg to an English ship. The people fiew^ to arms 
tinder Patrick Henry, and Dunmore was forced to pay for the 
powder. On the 6th of June he fled with his family and 
took refuge on board the Fo'a'cy, a man-of-war. What a 
contrast does Lord Dunmore's exit from Virginia, present to 
his entrance, only three short years before ! Behold him on 
his coming, received with expressions of warmth and affec- 
tion by the Assembly ; later, two counties called in honor of 
his family; a daughter born in the Colony and named "Vir- 
ginia." formally adopted by the Assembl)- as the Daughter 
of the Dominion, with pro\-ision for her life sup])()rt ; and 
then belK^ld Lord Dunmore, seeking to deprive \'irginians of 



198 11 IE COVIiR.XORS OF / VA'C'/AA-/. 

tliL- means of self-defence, and in the dead of nighl. removing; 
all the powder from the magazine in Williamsburg ; behold 
him fleeing in conscious guilt to the Fozvey; behold him 
plundering the inhabitants along the James and York Rivers 
and carrying off their slaves ; behold him making battle at 
Great Bridge, and with a last, fell stroke, firing and destroy- 
ing Norfolk, the most flourishing town in Virginia ! History 
records these painful fadls, and it is wise for the descend- 
ants of the Revolutionary Fathers to remember through what 
deep seas of suffering these heroes struggled to their freedom ! 
Lord Dunmore returned to England in the latter part of the 
summer of 1776, and in 1786 was appointed Governor of Ber- 
muda. He died at Ramsgate, England, in May, 1809. 




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LXVIII. 

PEYTON RANDOLPH. 

President of 

The l^irginia Conveuliou of August^ ^77 h 

The Virginia Conveiitiou of Marc h^ n75i 

The ]^irgiuia Convention ofjnly, 1775. 

Never since the foundation of Virginia had there been 
greater need of wisdom and courage in her people than was 
necessary in the critical jun<flure now at hand, and not in 
vain did the occasion summon the indignant Colonists to high 
and patriotic duties. 

Standing face to face with a great crisis which they 
intrepidly resolved to meet, they pledged their lives, their 
fortunes, and their sacred honor to the conflict, and shoulder 
to shoulder moved on to the momentous issue of "liberty 
or death." 

Peyton Randolph, first President of the American 
Congress, was born in \'irginia in 1723, and died in Phila- 
delphia, October 22, 1775. He was the second son of vSir 
John Randolph, and after graduating at the College of Wil- 
liam and Mary, went to England and studied law. On 
his return in 1748 he was appointed King's Attorne3^-General 
for the Colony, was chosen a member of the House of Bur- 
gesses, and was chairman of a committee to revise the laws 
of the Colony. In 1764 he drew up the address of the 
Burgesses to the King, against the passage of the Stamp A(5l. 
In 1765, after that Acfl became a law, Randolph, with other 
proprietors of large estates, opposed Patrick Henry's cele- 
brated five re.solutions, being loath to cast the die of Rev- 
olution. In the same year Virginia forwarded to Kng- 



son THE GOVIiRXONS OF VI NCI XI A. 

hind petitions similar to those adopted by the Congress, 
(held in the City of New York, Ocftober, 1765) with an 
address to the King, written by Randolph. In 1766 Randolph 
was made Speaker of the House of Burgesses, resigning, 
about the same time, his office of Attorney-General. In the 
measures of opposition to the English government he now 
took a conspicuous part. He was a member of the committee 
of vigilance, appointed to obtain the most accurate intelli- 
gence of all Acfts of Parliament affedling the rights of the Col- 
onies, and authorized to open a correspondence with the other 
Colonies. In August, 1774, he presided in the Convention at 
Williamsburg, and was one of the delegates eledled to the 
Continental Congress. On the assembling of that body in 
Philadelphia, in September, he was unanimously ele(5led its 
President, but in consequence of ill-health, held the po.st only 
five or six weeks. InMarch, 1775, he presided over the second 
Convention of Virginia, at Richmond, was ele(5led again as a 
delegate to Congress, and when that body met at Philadelphia 
on May 10, 1775, was re-ele(fted President; but nearer duties 
recalling him to Virginia, he was succeeded by John Han- 
cock. The Convention which met in Richmond, July 17, 
1775, eledled Peyton Randolph its President, making him 
thus for the third time the Moderator of the revolutionary 
proceedings in Virginia. But his valuable services were 
destined to be of short duration. He died suddenly, of apo- 
plexy, in Philadelphia, Oc5lober 22, 1775, but his remains 
were interred beneath the pavement of the famous "Old 
Chapel" of William and Mary College, at Williamsburg, 
Virginia. 

Of all Peyton Randolph's public services, none, perhaps, 
were more valuable than those he rendered in the three 
historic Revolutionary Conventions over which he presided 
in his native state. He was one of the most distinguished 
lawyers and patriots of his time and country, and, though 
not remarkable for eloquence, he derived great weight from 
the solid powers of his understanding, and the no less solid 
virtues of his heart. Besides being an eminent lawyer, he 
was a well-informed and pradlical .statesman, and his thorough 



PEYTON RANDOLPH. 201 

acquaintance with all forms of parliamentary proceeding made 
him a tower of strength in those days of anarchy and confusion. 

On the morning of May 25, 1774, when Lord Dunmore 
dissolved for the last time the Virginia House of Burgesses, 
the indignant members repaired immediately to the Ralegh 
Tavern, about one hundred paces from the Capitol, and with 
Peyton Randolph, their late Speaker, in the chair, held a sol- 
emn Council. They voted that the late attack on Massachu- 
setts was an attack on all the Colonies, which should be op- 
posed by the united wisdom of all. They advised an annual 
Continental Congress, and they named Peyton Randolph, with 
others, a Committee of Correspondence, to invite a general 
concurrence in this design. On the following Sunday after- 
noon. May 29, 1774, letters from Boston reached Williams- 
burg, of such an exciting and important nature, that the next 
morning, at ten o'clock, the Burgesses met, having called to 
their aid Washington, who was in Williamsburg at the time. 
Being but twenty-five in number they felt unwilling to 
assume the responsibility of definite measures of resistance, 
but summoned a Convention of delegates to be elecfled by the 
several counties, to meet at the Capitol on the first day of the 
ensuing Augu.st. It was in this Convention that Washington 
uttered the wish to raise one thousand men, subsist them at 
his own expense, and march at their head to the relief of 
Boston. It is also a point of historic interest to note, that 
the people of Boston endorsed ' ' the plan proposed by our 
noble, patriotic, sister Colony of Virginia." 

Among the great causes of colonial dissatisfadlion with 
the mother country, we may briefly mention the Navigation 
Acl of 1 65 1, the Sugar Acft of 1764, the Stamp A(ft of 1765 ; 
but the spark which fired the smouldering continental 
discontent was the duty on Tea, which, resisted, led to the 
Boston Port Bill, in 1774, and this — to war. 

The A(5l which shut up the harbor of Bo.ston was 
speedily followed by another, entitled, " An Acft for the better 
regulating the government of Massachusetts," and this 
unveiled intention of interfering with Home Rule was too 
nuich for struggling freedom. 
.\iv 



202 THE GOJ'ERNORS OF J'IRGINIA. 

On June i, 1774, the day appointed to carry the Port Bill 
into operation, business was finished at Boston by twelve 
o'clock noon, and the harbor shut up. The daj- was observed 
through all the Colonies as a day of mourning. In this 
feverish condition of public feeling, the Convention, summoned 
to meet in Williamsburg, assembled in the old Capitol on 
August 1 , 1774, and Peyton Randolph was elected its President. 
Here, in the " Heart of the Rebellion," as this building was 
called, was first proclaimed in outline that noble chart of 
human liberty — the Declaration of American Independence. 
Illness detained Thomas Jeffer.son on the road, but he sent 
for inspection a paper which foreshadowed his mighty work. 
It was presented by Peyton Randolph, President of the Con- 
vention, and printed by some of the delegates. l{numerating 
the grievances which affecfted all the Colonies, it made a spec- 
ial complaint of a wrong to Virginia. 

" For the most trifling reasons," said he, " and sometimes for no 
conceivable reason at all, his Majesty has rejected laws of the most salntary 
tendency. The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire 
in those Colonies where it was unhappily introduced in their infant state. 
But, previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is necessary 
to exclude all further importations from Africa ; yet our repeated attempts 
to effect this (by prohibitions, and by imposing duties which might 
amount to a prohibition,) have been hitherto defeated by his Majesty's 
negative, thus preferring the immediate advantage of a few British cor.sairs 
to the lasting interests of the American states, and to the rights of human 
nature, deeply wounded by this infamous practice." 

Of these words every heart acknowledged the jtistice. 
Moreover, the Fairfax Resolves, in which George Mason and 
Washington had given their solemn judgment against the 
slave trade, were brought by the Fairfax delegates before 
the Convention, and in Atigust that bod}' came to the tinani- 
nious vote : 

"After the first day of November next, we will neither ourselves 
import nor purchase any slave or slaves imported by any other person, 
either from Africa, the West Indies, or any other place." 

In this Convention, the eloquence of Richard Henr}- Lee 
and of Patrick Henr}' made stich profound impression, that 
the one was compared to Cicero and the other to Demosthenes, 



ri-.vroN RANiH)Lrfi. 203 

and Washington declared, " The crisis is arrived when we 
must assert our rights or submit to every imposition that can 
be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us tame 
and abjecft slaves." The great lawyer, Thomson Mason, 
of Virginia, denied, through the press, the right of England 
to make laws for the Colonies, and exclaimed, "I do not 
wish to survive the liberty of my country one single moment, 
and am determined to risk my all in supporting it." Thus 
the voice of Virginia, within and without the Convention, 
was for Liberty, and she sent Patrick Henry, Washington, 
Richard Henry Lee, and Peyton Randolph to expound her 
views in the Continental Congress, which met at Philadelphia, 
September 4, 1774. Peyton Randolph, late Speaker of the 
Assembly of Virginia, was unanimously chosen President of 
the first Continental Congress. The assemblage baptized 
itself "The Congress," and its Chairman " The President." 
Eleven Colonies were represented by fifty-five members, each 
Colony sending as many members as it pleased, and here 
Patrick Henry, Washington, Richard Henry Lee, vSamuel 
Adams, John Adams, Jay, and many other noble patriots 
met to face the desperate resort of Revolution. 

At the beginning of the second day's .session, a long and 
deep silence prevailed. The voice of Virginia was waited 
for, and .soon it was heard to break that momentous stillness. 
Amid the .solemn hush ro.se Patrick Henry to .speak his 
country's wrongs, and to grave as "with an iron pen and 
lead in the rock forever," the glorious idea of American 
union. "British oppression," he said, "has effaced the 
boundaries of the several Colonies ; the distindlions between 
\'irginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Eng- 
landers are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an Amer- 
ican ! " 

In 1774 the number of white inhabitants in all the thirteen 
Colonies was about 2,100,000, and of blacks about 500,000. 
This was the America which determined to be free. But, 
l)efore the patient patriots in Congress a.ssembled turned to 
the last resort, they determined to make one final appeal to 
Ivm^laiid. The\- sent an address to the King, a memorial to 



204 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

the people of British America, and an address to the people of 
Great Britain. Mr. Lee, Mr. J. Adams, Mr. Johnson, Mr. 
Henry, and Mr. Randolph prepared the address to the King ; 
Mr. L,ee wrote the memorial to the people of British America ; 
and Mr. Jay, the address to the people of Great Britain. 

Lord Chatham, in speaking of these communications in 
the House of Lords, said: "When your lordships look at 
the papers transmitted to us from America, when you con- 
sider their decenc3^ firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but 
respect their cause and wish to make it your own. For 
myself, I must declare and avow that in all my reading and 
observation — and state-craft has been my favorite study, I 
have read Thucydides, and admired the master states of the 
world — that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and 
wi-sdom of conclusion under such complication of circum- 
stances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to 
the general Congress at Philadelphia." It is true that the 
Congress of 1774 was composed of men of the highest order 
of wisdom and talent, "but, if you speak of solid information 
and sound judgment," said Patrick Henry, " Washington 
is unquestionably the greatest man of them all." 

But England would not relent, and the pressure of events 
which thickened as the time rolled on, found Virginia 
in 1775 embarrassed by unusual difficulties. Subje^led to 
the tyranny of a Governor now opposed to her every interest, 
and, saving a little powder in a magazine near Williamsburg, 
destitute of warlike stores, she was, with many hindrances, 
quite unprepared for war. Of all the Colonies, she was most 
open to attack. The Bay of the Chesapeake, the deep waters 
of the Potomac, the James, the York, and other streams, 
exposed her to invasion, and when day after day she saw the 
English men-of-war hovering upon her coa.st, she knew " the 
hour " had come, and she bared her bosom to the storm. To 
meet the crisis, .she called a convention to assemble at Rich- 
mond in March of this year, 1775. Williamsburg was no 
longer a place for revolutionary assemblages. Dunmore sat 
in his palace and watched in angry silence the progress of 
events, relying for his own protecflion on the British nien-of- 



p/crroy Randolph. 2U5 

war Ij'iiig in the river near at hand. So the patriots con- 
vened, March 20, 1775, in Richmond, on what is now known 
as "Church Hill," in old vSt. John's Church, there to make 
ready for the morrow. They knew their cause was just, and 
they knew that whatever course might be decided on for the 
defence of Virginia, the people at home were ready to lay 
down their money and their lives to accomplish it. Of this 
Convention Peyton Randolph was chosen President, and 
here Patrick Henry delivered one of those stirring, fiery 
appeals of eloquence wdiich has in part come down to us. 
He said, addressing the President : 

" I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the 
lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by 
the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in 
the conduct of the British Ministry for the last ten years to justify those 
hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and 
the house. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been 
lately received ? Trust it not, sir ; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suf- 
fer not yovirselves to be betra3'ed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this 
gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations 
which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies neces- 
sary to a work of love and reconciliation ? Have we shown ourselves so 
unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love ? 
Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and sub- 
jugation ; the last argument to which kings resort. I ask, gentlemen, sir, 
what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submis- 
sion? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great 
Britain an enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumu- 
lation of navies and armies ? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for 
us ; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet 
upon us those chains, which the British Ministry have been so long forg- 
ing. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? 
vSir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything 
new to offer upon the subjecfl? Nothing. We have held the subjecft up 
in every light of which it is capable ; but it has been all in vain. Shall 
we resort to entreaty and humble supplication ? What terms shall we 
find, which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, 
sir, deceive ourselves longer. 

"Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the 
storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned ; we have remon- 
strated ; we have supplicated ; wc have prostrated ourselves before the 
ihronc, and have implored its inter])osition to arrest the tyrannical 
luinds of the Ministr}- and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted ; 



2()() THE GOl'ERNORS OF VIRC.INIA. 

our reitioustrances have produced additional violence aud insult ; our 
supplications have been disregarded ; and we have been spurned, with 
contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may 
we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer 
any room for hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve invio- 
late those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contend- 
ing — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we 
have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to 
abandon, until the glorious obje6l of our contest shall be obtained — zve 
must fight ! I repeat it, sir, ivc iiiust fight ! An appeal to arms and to the 
God of Hosts is all that is left us ! 

"They tell us, sir, that we are weak, — unable to cope with so formid- 
able an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next 
week, or the next year? Will it be when we arc totally disarmed, and 
when a British guard shall be stationed in every house ? Shall we gather 
strength by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we acquire the means of 
effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, aud hugging the delu- 
sive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and 
foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which 
the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, 
armed in the holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as that which 
we possess, are invincil)le bv any force which our enem}- can send against us. 

Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God, 
who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends 
to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone ; it is 
to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. 
If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the 
contest. There is no retreat, but in submission and slavery. Our chains 
are forged. Their clanking may be heard upon the plains of Boston. 
The war is inevitable, — and let it come f I repeat it, sir, let it come! It is 
vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, 'Peace, peace!' 
but there is no peace. The war is aclualh' begun. The next gale that 
sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms ! 
Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle ? What is it 
that the gentlemen M'ish ? What would you have ? Is life so dear or peace 
so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it. 
Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but, as for me, 
give me liberty, or give me death ! " 

Says William Wirt in describing this scene: "He took 
his seat. No murmur of applause was heard. The effect 
was too deep. After the trance of a moment, several mem- 
bers started from their seats. The cry, ' To arms ! ' seemed 
to quiver on every lip and gleam from every eye." — and the 
following Resolution was immediately adopted : 



P/:)"r()\ RAXDOLPH. 207 

"Resolved, therefore, That this Colony be inimediately put into a 

state of defence and that be a connnittee to prepare a plan 

for embodying, arming, and disciplining such a number of men as may 
be sufficient for that purpose." 

Patrick Henr\', Richard H. L,ee, Robert C. Nicholas, 
Benjamin Harrison, Lemuel Riddick, George Washington, 
Adam Stevens, Andrew lycwis, William Christian, Edmund 
Pendleton, Thomas Jefferson, and Isaac Zane were appointed 
a committee to prepare the plan called for by the above 
Resolution. 

"Thus the fathers of the Revolution," says Hening, 
"when the}' dared that hazardous enterprise, found them- 
.selves without a government, without men, and without 
money. Indeed, they had nothing to support them in the 
awful contest but their own virtue and talents, and a firm 
reliance on the Sovereign Disposer of all events." The 
progress of the Revolution shows with what facility all diffi- 
culties were surmounted, what rapid progress was made in 
military science, and how fitly every measure was adapted to 
the circumstances of the cotmtry. 

Thus was Virginia fairly launched into the War of the 
Revolution. Meeting at her own door the treacherous Lord 
Dunmore, who, by fire, .sword, and ever}^ wicked strategem, 
.sought her ruin, she failed not to join hands with her sister 
Colonies, to work out their common redemption. 

In this exciting posture of affairs the Colonial Convention 
of Virginia met again in Richmond, on Monday, the 17th day 
of July, 1775. Peyton Randolph was chosen President of 
this Convention, whose proceedings were marked by great 
decision and vigor. Their first measure was ' ' An ordinance 
for raising and embodying a sufficient force for the defence 
and prote(5lion of this Colony." Two regiments of regulars, 
to consist of one thousand and twenty privates, rank and file, 
were to be forthwith raised and taken into the pay of the 
Colony ; also other military forces were provided for, and 
soldiers armed, trained, and furnished with all militarj^ 
accoutrements, were to be ready to march at a minute's 
warning. Patrick Henry was elecflcd Colonel of the i.st 



208 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Virginia Regiment, and made Commander of all the forces 
raised and to be raised, for the defence of the Colony. On 
the 15th of June, little less than a month before, Washington, 
at the age of 43, had been eledled by the Continental Con- 
gress, then in session in Philadelphia, General of "The 
Continental Army." This appointment was brought forward 
"at the particular request of the people in New England," 
and he was eledled by ballot unanimously. Upon accepting 
the position he said, " As the Congress desire it, I will enter 
upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess 
in their service and for the support of the glorious cause. 
But. I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in this 
room, that I this day declare, with the utmost sincerity, I do 
not think myself equal to the command I am honored with." 
It was in the midst of all these exciting scenes that Peyton 
Randolph, the immediate subjecfl of this sketch, died sud- 
denly, on the 22d Odlober, 1775, aged 52. He left a noble 
record of personal honor, usefulness, and patriotism, holding 
in many a storm the rudder of the ship of state, in those dark 
hours " which tried men's souls." 



LXIX. 

EDMUND PENDLETON. 

President of 

The Convention of December^ ijys^ 

and 

The Convention of May ^ i??^- 

The burning period now to be reviewed is known in the 
annals of Virginia as the "Interregnum," being the time 
embraced from the dissolution of the regal government, prac- 
tically dissolved upon the flight of Lord Dunmore, June 6, 
1775, until the establishment of the Commonwealth on the 
29th June, 1776. 

Edmund Pendleton, whose name heads this article, was 
born in the County of Caroline, Va., in 1712, and on his 
estate, " Edmundsbury," in that county, spent such portion 
of his life as was not devoted to public service. He became 
first. Clerk of the County Court, then a member of the bar, 
and at the age of thirty entered the House of Burgesses of 
Virginia. He soon rose to distincftion, and was one of the 
most conspicuous among the great men of his state during 
the war of the Revolution. He was a man of fine endow- 
ments and vigorous application, and by hard stud}' remedied 
the wants of early education. He was for a long time one of 
the leading members of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 
and in 1773 was appointed one of the Committee of Corre- 
spondence for gaining intelligence of the ac5ls of the British 
government, and for communicating with the Colonies. He 
was a member of the Congress of 1 774, and President of the Vir- 
ginia Conventions of December, 1775, and May, 1776. In 1787 
he was appointed President of the Convention of Virginia, 
eledled to consider the Constitution of the United States, and 



210 THE GOVERNORS OF /7/vY7/A'A/. 

employed his influence to obtain its adoption. In 1789 he 
was appointed Judge of the United States Distridl Court for 
Virginia, but declined the office. He was for many years a 
Judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and its President 
at the time of his death, which took place at Richmond, 23d 
Ocflober, 1806. He held the first rank as a lawyer and 
statesman, and was particularly distinguished for the force 
and clearness of his thoughts, for subtlety in discrimination, 
and dexterity in argument. • Edmund Pendleton is thus 
described by the celebrated William Wirt, of Richmond, Va.: 

"His man uers were elevated, graceful and insinuating. His person 
was spare, but well proportioned ; and his countenance one of the finest 
iu the world; serene — contemplative — benignant — with that expression 
of unclouded intelligence and extensive reach, which seemed to denote 
him capable of anything that could be effected by the power of the human 
mind. His mind itself was of a ver}- fine order. It was clear, compre- 
hensive, sagacious and correal; with a most acute and subtle faculty of 
discrimination ; a fertility of expedient which could never be exhausted ; 
a dexterity of address which never lost an advantage and never gave one ; 
and a capacity for continued and unremitting application, which was per- 
fedlly invincible. As a lawyer and a statesman he had few equals; no 
superiors. For parliamentary management, he was without a rival. 
With all these advantages of person, manners, address and intelledl, he 
was also a speaker of distinguished eminence. He had that silver voice of 
which Cicero makes such frequent and honorable mention — an articiila- 
tion uncommonly distin(5l — a perennial stream of transparent, cool and 
sweet elocution ; and the power of presenting his arguments with great 
simplicity, and striking effect. He was always graceful, argumentative, 
persuasive, never vehement, rapid, or abrapt. He could instru6l and 
delight ; but he had no pretensions to those high powers which are calcu- 
lated to 'shake the human soul.' " 

Pendleton has also been described as the conserv^atist- 
revolutionist of the era, saying of himself, that his great aim 
was to ' ' raise the spirits of the timid to a genci^al united 
opposition,'' and oppose "the violent who were for plunging us 
into rash measures." Surely none better l^uited to the high 
and responsible position could have been chosen to preside 
over the Convention of Virginia, in December, 1775. This 
Convention was "held at the Town of Richmond, in the 
Colony of Virginia, on Friday, the first of December, in the 



iinMixn /'/':xj)l/':ton. an 

year of our Lord one thousand and seven hundred and 
seventy-five, and afterwards, by adjournment, in the City of 
Williamsburg." Its proceedings were such as the urgency 
of the times demanded. But no one can appreciate the perils 
and difficulties of those days, without realizing that the rep- 
resentatives of the people of Virginia were endowed "with 
wisdom from on high." Indeed, they had formerly declared 
their dependence upon the God of Hosts, (see the declaration 
of the Convention in their Journal of the 13th December, 
1775,) and had lifted their arms in the name of " One mighty 
to save." 

The first Ordinance enadled was ' ' for raising a-n additional 
number of forces for the defence and protection of this 
Colony," and for otherwise perfedling their military system ; 
next, "An Ordinance for appointing Sheriffs"; next, "An 
Ordinance for providing arms and ammunition for the use of 
this Colony"; next, " An Ordinance for revising and amend- 
ing an Ordinance appointing a Committee of Safety " ; and 
then, after making wise regulations concerning some matters 
of domestic policy, they passed a comprehen^ve "Ordinance 
for establishing a mode of punishment for the enemies to 
America in this Colony." 

On the 19th day of April, 1775, the first blood of the 
Revolution was shed on the plains of Lexington, in Massa- 
chusetts. Eight Americans were killed. This battle was the 
signal of war, and not until Old Yorktown, Virginia, had wit- 
nessed the capitulation of Lord Cornwallis to General Wash- 
ington, on Odtober 19, 1781, did the storm of conflicft abate. 

In May, 1776, Virginia again assembled in Convention in 
Richmond, and the history of this momentous occasion 
cannot by another pen be so well described as by the accom- 
plished historian, Bancroft, in the following : 

"Ou the sixth of May, forty-five members of the House of Burgesses 
of Virginia met at the capitol in WilUamslnirg pursuant to their adjourn- 
ment ; but, as they were of the opinion that the ancient Constitution had 
been subverted by the King and Parliament of Great Britain, they dis- 
solved themselves unanimously, and thus the last vestige of the King's 
authority passed awaj-. 



212 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

"The delegates of Virginia, who on the same morning assembled in 
convention not less than one hundred and thirty in number, were a con- 
stituent and an executive assembly. They represented the oldest and the 
largest Colony, whose institutions had been fashioned on the model recom- 
mended by Bacon, and whose inhabitants for nearly a hundred and sev- 
enty years had been eminently loyal, and had sustained the Church of 
England as the Establishment of the land. 

' ' Its people, having in their origin a perceptible but never an exclu- 
sive influence of the Cavaliers, had sprung mainly from Adventurers, who 
were not fugitives for conscience' sake, or sufferers from persecution, or 
passionate partisans of monarchy. The population had been recruited by 
successive infusions of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians; Huguenots, and the 
descendants of Huguenots ; men who had been so attached to Cromwell or 
to the republic that they preferred to emigrate on the return of Charles 
II.; Baptists and other dissenters; and in the valley of Virginia there was 
a very large German population. Beside all these, there was the great 
body of the backwoodsmen, rovers from Maryland and Pennsylvania, not 
caring much for the record of their lineage. 

"The territory for which the convention was to a(5l was not a limited 
one like that of Sparta or Attica ; beginning at the ocean, it comprised 
the great Bay of the Chesapeake, with its central and southern tributaries ; 
the beautiful valleys on the head-springs of the Roanoke and along the 
whole course of the Shenandoah ; the country beyond the mountains, 
including the sources of the Monongahela and the Cumberland Rivers, 
and extending indefiuiteh- to the Tennessee and beyond it. Nor that 
only; Virginia insisted that its jurisdicftion stretched without bounds 
over all the country west and northwest of a line two hundred miles north 
of Old Point Comfort, not granted to otliers by royal charters ; and there 
was no one to dispute a large part of this claim except the Province of 
Quebec under an A6t of Parliament which the Continental Congress had 
annulled. For all this wide expanse, rich in soil, precious minerals, heal- 
ing springs, forests, convenient marts for foreign commerce, the great 
pathways to the west, more fertile, more spacious than all Greece, Italy 
and Great Britain, than any region for which it had ever been proposed 
to establish republican liberty, a Constitution was to be framed. 

"It has been discussed, whether the spirit that now prevailed was 
derived from Cavaliers, and whether it sprung from the inhabitants on 
tide water or was due to those of the iiplands ; the answer is plain : the 
movement in Virginia proceeded from the heart of Virginia herself, and 
represented tlie niagnanimit)- of her own people. It did not spring, it 
coiild not spring, from sentiments generated by the b3--gone loyalty to the 
Stuarts. The Ancient Dominion had with entire unanimity approved the 
change of dynasty of 1688 ; with equal unanimity, had, even more readil}- 
than the English, accepted the House of Hanover, and had been one of 
the most lo^al jjartsof the cmjiircofthe Georges; the Rc\olution was due 



EDMl '.VP PEND L E TOX. 313 

to a keen sciitiineiit of wroiij; and outrage, and was joined in with a one- 
ness of spirit, which asked no questions about ancestry, or traditional 
affinities, or religious creed, or nearness to the sea or to the mountains. 
The story of the war conuiienioratcs the courage of the men of the inte- 
rior; among the " incxoral)le families" Dunmore especially reported 
from the low country the Lees, and the whole family of Cary of Hampton, 
of whom even the sisters, married to a Fairfax and a Nicholas, cheered on 
their connedlions to unrelenting opposition. Virginia rose with as much 
unanimity as Connedlicut or Massachusetts, and w'ith a more command- 
ing resolution. 

"The purpose for which the convention was assembled appears from 
the words of the county of Biickingham to Charles Patterson and John 
Cabell, its Delegates : ' We instrudl you to cause a total and final separa- 
tion from Great Britain to take place as soon as possible ; and a Constitu- 
tion to be established, with a full representation, and free and frequent 
eledlions. As America is the last country of the world which has con- 
tended for her liberty, so she may be the most free and happy; taking 
advantage of her situation and strength, and having the experience of all 
before to profit by. The Supreme Being hath left it in our power to 
choose what government we please for our civil and religious happiness ; 
good government and the prosperity of mankind can alone be in the 
divine intention ; we pray therefore that, under the superintending provi- 
dence of the Ruler of the universe, a government may be established in 
America, the most free, happy, and permanent that human wisdom can 
contrive and the perfeiftion of man maintain.' 

" The county of Augusta represented the necessity of making the con- 
federacy of the united Colonies most perfedl, independent, and lasting ; 
and of framing an equal, free and liberal government, that might bear the 
test of all future ages. A petition was sent from the inhabitants of Tran- 
sylvania, declaring that they were anxious to concur with their brethren 
of the united Colonies in every measure for the recovery of their rights 
and liberties. 

"The inhabitants on the rivers Watauga and Holston set forth that 
' they were deeply impressed with a sense of the distresses of their Ameri- 
can brethren, and would, when called upon, with their lives and fortunes, 
lend them every assistance in their power ; that thej' begged to be consid- 
ered as a part of the Colony, and would readily embrace every opportun- 
ity of obeying any commands from the convention. '^ 

' ' To that body were chosen more than one hundred and thirty of the 
ablest and most weighty men of Virginia. Among them were no rash 
enthusiasts for liberty ; no lovers of revolution for the sake of change ; no 
aml)itious demagogues hoi)ing for advancement by the overthrow of exi.st- 
ing institutions ; they were the choice of the freeholders of Virginia, and 
the majority were men of independent fortune, or even opulence. It was 
afterw.'uds remembered that of this grave Assembly the members were for 



214 THE COVERNORS OF I'lRCINIA. 

the most part men of laii^e stature and robust frames, and that a very great 
proportion of them lived to exceeding old age. They were now to decide 
whether Virginia demanded independence, and if so, they were to estali- 
lish a Commonwealth; in making this decision, they moved like a 
pillar of fire in front of the whole country. 

"When the delegates had assembled and appointed a clerk, Richard 
Bland recommended Edmund Pendleton to be chosen President, and was 
seconded by Archibald Cary ; while Thomcs Johnson of Uouisa, and Bar- 
tholomew Dandridge, proposed ThoTuas Ltidwell L,ee. For a moment 
there was something like an array of parties, but it instantly subsided ; 
Virginia showed her greatness by her moderation, and gave to the world 
new evidence that the Revolution sprung from necessity, by placing in the 
chair Pendleton, the most cautious and conservative among her patriots. 
After his eledlion, he wrote to a friend : ' Of all others, I own I prefer the 
the true English Constitution, which consists of a proper combination of 
the principles of honor, virtue, and fear." 

"The Convention, after having been employed for some days on cur- 
rent business, resolved itself into a committee of the whole on the state of 
the Colony ; and on the fifteenth Archibald Cary reported resolutions 
which had been drafted by Pendleton, offered by Nelson, and enforced bv 
Henry. They were then twice read at the Clerk's table, and, one hundred 
and twelve members being present, were unanimously agreed to. The 
preamble enumerated their chief grievances; among others, that the 
King's representative in the Colony was training and employing slaves 
against their masters ; and, they say : ' We have no alternative left but an 
abjedt submissioti or a total separation '; therefore, they went on to decree, 
' that their delegates in Congress be instrucfled to propose to that body to 
declare the united Colonies free and independent states, absolved from all 
allegiance or dependence upon the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain ; 
and that they give the assent of this Colony to such declaration, and to 
measures for forming foreign alliances and a Confederation of the Colonies ; 
provided that the power of forming government for, and the regulation of 
the internal concerns of each Colony, be left to the res])ettive colonial I-,eg- 
islatures. 

"This resolution was received out of doors with chimes of bells and 
the noise of artillerj- ; and the British flag, which had thus far kept its 
place on the statehouse, was struck, to be raised no more. 

"In the following days, a committee of thirty-two was appointed to 
prepare a declaration of rights and a plan of government. Among the 
members were Archibald Cary ; Patrick Henry, first of all in boldly main- 
taining the spirit of the resolution and influence over the members from 
the upper counties; the aged Richard Bland; Edmund Randolph, son of 
the attorney-general, who was then a refugee in England; Nicholas; 
James Madison, the youthful delegate from Orange county; but the one 
who at that moment held most swav over the mind of the convention was 



EDMrsn ri-:\nLKTON. 215 

George Mason, the successor of Washington in the representation of Fair- 
fax county. He was a devoted member of the Church of England ; and 
by his own account of himself, which is still preserved, 'though not born 
within the verge of the British isle, he had been an Englishman in his 
principles, a zealous assertor of the Act of Settlement, firmh- attached to 
the royal family upon the throne, well affected to the King personally and 
to his government, in defence of which he would have shed the last drop 
of his blood ; one who adored the wisdom and happiness of the British 
Constitution, and preferred it to any that then existed or had ever existed.' 
For ten years he claimed nothing for his countrymen beyond the liberty 
and privileges of Englishmen, in the same degree as if they had still con- 
tinued among their brethren in Great Britain ; but he said : ' The ancient 
poets, in their elegant manner of expression, have made a kind of l)eing 
of Necessity, and tell us that the gods themselves are obliged to yield to 
her' ; and he left the private life that he loved, to assist in the rescue of 
his country from the excesses of arbitrary' power to which a seeming fatal- 
ity had driven the British Ministers. He was a good speaker and an able 
debater, the more eloquent now for being touched with sorrow ; but his 
gi-eat strength lay in his sincerity, which made him wise and bold, modest 
and unchanging, while it overawed his hearers. He was severe, but his 
severity was humane, with no tinge of bitterness, though he had a scorn 
for everything mean, cowardly, or low ; and he always spoke out his con- 
victions with frank directness. He had been truly 103'al ; on renouncing 
his King, he could stand justified to his own conscience only by an unself- 
ish attachment to human freedom. 

"On the twenty-seventh of May, Cary, from the committee, pre- 
sented to the Convention the Declaration of Rights which Mason had 
drafted. For the next fortnight the great truths which it proclaimed, and 
which were to form the groundwork of American institutions, employed 
the thoughts of the Convention, and during several successive days were 
the subject of solenm deliberation. One clause only received a material 
amendment. Mason had written that all should enjoy the fullest tolera- 
tion in the exercise of religion. But toleration is the demand of the skep- 
tic, who has no fixed belief, and only wishes to be let alone; a firm faith, 
which is too easily tempted to establish itself exclusively, can be content 
with nothing less than equality. A young man, then unknown to fame, 
of a bright hazel eye inclining to gray, small in stature, light in person, 
delicate in appearance, looking like a pallid, sickly scholar among the 
robust men with whom he was jissociated, proposed an amendment. He 
was James Madison, the son of an Orange county planter, bred in the 
school of Presbyterian dissenters under Witherspoon at Princeton, trained 
by his own studies, by meditative rural life in the Old Dominion, by an 
ingenuous indignation at the persecutions of the Baptists, by the innate 
principles of right, to uphold the sandlity of religious freedom. He 
ol)jcctcd to the word "toleration," jjccausc it implied an established 



216 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

religion, which endured dissent only as a condescension; and, as the 
earnestness of his conviclions overcame his modesty, he went on to dem- 
onstrate that 'all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, 
according to the dictates of conscience.' His motion, which did but state 
with better dialedlics the very purpose which Mason wished to accom- 
plish, obtained the suffrages of his colleagues. 

"A DECLARATION OI' RIGHTS 

MAnR HV THK REPRESENTATIVKS OK THK COOIl PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA, 

ASSEMBLED IN FULL .\ND FREE CONVENTION ; 

WHICH RIGHTS DO PERTAIN TO THEM, AND THEIR POSTERITY, 

AS THE BASIS AND FOUNDATION OF GOVERNMENT. 

(Unanimously adopted June 12, 1776.) 

"I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and 
have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of 
society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; 
namely, the enjoyment of life and libert}', with the means of acquiring 
and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. 

"2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the 
people ; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times 
amenable to them. 

"3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common 
benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community ; of 
all the various modes and forms of government that is best, which is capa- 
ble of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most 
eff"ectually secured against the danger of mal-administration ; and that 
whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these 
purposes, a majority of the conmiunity hath an indubitable, unalienable, 
and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as 
shall be judged most conducive to the public weal. 

"4. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate 
emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of 
publick services ; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices 
of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary. 

"5. That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be 
separate and distinct from the judiciary ; and that the members of the two 
first may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the 
burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a pri- 
vate station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, 
and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections, 
in which all, or any part of the former members, to be again eligible, or 
ineligible, as the laws shall direct. 

"6. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the pco- 



linMiM^ ri:\ni.i:rOi\\ 217 

pic, in assciiihly, ouj;lit to he free; and that all men, having sufficient evi- 
dence of permanent, common interest with, and attachment to, the com- 
niunit}-, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of 
their property for publick uses without their own consent, or that of their 
representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, 
in like manner, assented, for the publick good. 

" 7. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by 
any authority without consent of the representatives of the people, is 
injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised. 

"8. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to 
denumd the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the 
accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favour, and to a speedy 
trial b}- an imj^artial jury of his vicinage, without w'hose unanimous con- 
sent he cannot be found guilty ; nor can he be compelled to give evidence 
against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty except l)y the law 
of the land, or the judgment of his peers. 

"9. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines 
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

" 10. That general warrants, whereby any officer or messenger may 
l)e commanded to search susped^ed places without evidence of a fa6l com- 
mitted, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is 
not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and 
oppressive, and ought not to be granted. 

" II. That in controversies, respecfting propert}', and in suits between 
man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and 
ought to be held sacred. 

"12. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of lib- 
erty, and can never be restrained but by despotick governments. 

" 13. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the \\cio- 
ple. trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free state ; 
that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to 
liberty ; and that, in all cases, the military should be under stridl subor- 
dination to, and governed by, the civil power. 

" 14. That the people have a right to uniform government ; and there- 
fore, that no government separate from, or independent of, the govern- 
ment of Virginia, ought to be eredled or established within the limits 
thereof. 

" 15. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be ])re- 
served to any people but Ijy a firm adherence to justice, moderation, tem- 
perance, frugality, and virtue, and b)' frequent recurrence to fundamental 
principles. 

" 16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the 

manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, 

not by force or violence, and therefore all men are equally entitled to the 

free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that 

W 



218 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

it is the iimtual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love, and 
charity towards each other. 



' ' Other colonies had framed bills of rights in reference to their rela- 
tions with Britain ; Virginia moved from charters and customs to primal 
principles; from a narrow altercation about facts to the contemplation of 
immutable truth. She summoned the eternal laws of man's being to pro- 
test against all tyranny. The English petition of right in 1688 was his- 
toric and retrospective', the Virginia declaration came out of tlie heart of 
nature, and announced governing principles for all peoples in all future 
times. It was the voice of reasou going forth to speak a new political 
world into being. At the Ijar of humanity Virginia gave the name and 
fame of her sons as hostages that her public life should show a likeness to 
the highest ideas of right and equal freedom among men." 

Thus beautifully does Bancroft describe that ever-to-be- 
remembered Convention, which gave to the human race the 
Bill of Rights. 

On the 29th June, 1776, a Constitution or form of govern- 
ment was unanimously adopted by this Convention, and 
Patrick Henry, the people's idol, immediately elecfled first 
Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, with Edmund 
Randolph as Attorney- General. A short time before, on the 
7th of June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee had moved in Congress, 
' ' That these united Colonies are and ought to be free and 
independent states, and that all political conne(ftion between 
them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally 
dissolved." John Adams seconded the motion. After ani- 
mated debate, a committee was appointed to draw up the 
"Declaration." Richard Henry Lee having been called 
away to Virginia by illness in his family, the position which 
belonged to him (as by courtesy, chairman of this com- 
mittee,) was conferred on Thomas Jefferson. He accordingly 
drew up the paper, and on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of 
Independence was adopted by Congress. 

Among the contributions of Virginia to the cause of Amer- 
ica up to this jundlure may be noted : 

The Resolutions of 1765, denouncing the Stamp A(5l ; 

The originating in 1773 the Committees of Correspondence, 
which first united the Colonies ; 



EDMUND PENDLETON. 219 

The call in 1774, by her Convention, for a General Con- 
gress ; 

The instru(5lions, by the Convention of May, 1776, to the 
Virginia delegates, to propose a Declaration of Independence, 
which Richard Henry Lee moved in Congress, which Thomas 
Jefferson wrote, and which Washington was by his sword to 
lay broad and deep as the corner-stone of Republican liberty. 



LXX. 



PATRICK HENRY. 

Governor. 
June 29, 1776, to June i, 1779. 

Patrick Hknry, the second son of John and Sarah Henry, 
and one of nine children, was born on the 29th of May, 1736, 
at the family seat, called " Studley," in the County of Hanover 
and Colony of Virginia. In his early childhood his parents 
removed to another seat in the same county, then called 
" Mount Brilliant," now, "The Retreat." At this last place 
Patrick Henry was raised and educated. His parents, though 
not rich, were in easy circumstances, and in point of personal 
charadler were among the most respecflable inhabitants of 
the Colony. 

Patrick Henry was sent first to an ' ' old field school, ' ' where, 
at that period, tuition was chiefly confined to the primary 
departments of learning. Under his father he acquired a 
competent English education and some acquaintance with 
Latin and mathematics. As a boy, he was fond of hunting 
and angling, and would desert his books at any moment for 
these pleasures, loving, at that time, such amusements far 
better than any serious employment. Merchandise and 
agriculture, and merchandise again, he tried in turn without 
success, until about 1759, when at the age of twenty-four he 
embraced the study of law. This was the turning point in his 
life. Having when eighteen years old married Miss Sarah 
Shelton, of Hanover County, Virginia, it well behooved him to 
make some decided advance in life. He had met with disap- 
pointments, and the past was marked with failures, but this 
stage of Patrick Henry's experience was the deep darkness just 
before the dawn. At last he had found the path for which he 
was designed, and now, with him ' ' old things are passed away ; 



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/'W /'h'lC/s HE.\R ) ■. 221 

behold, all things are become new." A new heaven and a 
new earth spread before him, and henceforth hitherto unseen 
constellations were to guide the future statesman. It has 
been said that from the beginning of his career as a law5'er, 
Mr. Henrj^'s pra(ftice was extensive; it has been frequently 
asserted on the other hand, that he was not distinguished at 
the bar for three 3^ears after he adopted his interesting pro- 
fession. Be these fa(5ls as they may, it is recorded history 
that Patrick Henry's first great impression upon the public 
was on the first of December, 1763, in the trial at Hanover 
Court House, of " The Parson's Cause." In this'celebrated 
case the clergy were arrayed against the people, and the 
contest was a bitter one. The clergy were entitled by law to 
16,000 pounds of tobacco per annum, each, and the Adls of 
the House of Burgesses, in 1755 and 1758, curtailed very 
sensibly their revenue. Owing to the failure in these years 
of the tobacco crop, these Acfts provide that "all persons 
from whom any tobacco was due, were authorized to pay the 
same, either in tobacco or in money, after the rate of sixteen 
shillings and eight pence per hundred, at the option of the 
debtor." These A(5ls were to continue, .severally, for ten 
months and no longer. The law was universal in its appli- 
cation, but bore speciall}' on the clergy of the Established 
Church. They resolved to bring the question to a judicial 
test, and suits were accordingly brought by them, in the 
various County Courts of the Colony, to recover their stipends 
in the specific, tobacco. The}' selecfted the County of Han- 
over as the place of the first experiment. The case went 
against the defendants, and Mr. John I^ewis, their attorney, 
convinced that nothing more could be done, retired from the 
cause. In this desperate situation Mr. Lewis's clients applied 
to Patrick Henry, and he undertook to argue the case for 
them before a jurj' at the ensuing term of Court. 

Mr. William Wirt, of Richmond, \'a., the accomplished 
biographer of Patrick Henry, gives a soul-stirring account of 
this scene ; he says : 

"He rose very .'uvkwann}', and faltered iinich in his exorilium. The 



322 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

people hung their heads at so uupioiuisiug a conimenccinent ; the clergy 
were observed to exchange sly looks with each other ; and his father is 
described as having almost sunk with confusion from his seat. But, 
these feelings were of short duration and soon gave place to others of a 
very different chara(5ler. For, now were those wonderful faculties which 
he possessed, for the first time developed ; and now was first witnessed 
that mysterious and almost supernatural transformation of appearance 
which the fire of his own eloquence never failed to work in him. His atti- 
tude, by degrees, became eredl and lofty. The spirit of his genius 
awakened all his features. His countenance shone with a nobleness and 
grandeur which it had never before exhibited. There was a lightning in 
his eyes which seemed to rive the spectator. His adlion became graceful, 
bold, and commanding, and in the tones of his voice, but more especially 
in his emphasis, there was a peculiar charm, a .magic of which any one 
who ever heard him will speak as soon as he is named, but of which no 
one can give any adequate description. They can only say that it 
struck upon the ear and upon the heart in a manner which language 
cannot tell. Add to all these his wonder-working fancy, and the peculiar 
phraseology in which he clothed its images ; for he painted to the heart 
with a force that almost petrified it. It will not be difficult for any one 
who ever heard this most extraordinary man to believe the whole account 
of this transaction which is given by his surviving hearers ; and from 
their account the Court House of Hanover County must have exhib- 
ited on this occasion a scene as picturesque as has been ever witnessed in 

real life. 

************* 

" In less than twenty minutes the people might be seen in every 
part of the house, on every bench, in every window, stooping forward 
from their stands in death-like silence, their features fixed in amazement 
and awe, all their senses listening and riveted upon the speaker, as if to 
catch the last strain of some heavenly visitant. The mockery of the 
clergy soon turned into alarm ; their triumph, into confusion and despair • 
and at one burst of his rapid and overwhelming invective, they fled from 
the bench in precipitation and terror. As for his father, such was his 
surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture, that, forgetting where he 
was and the character which he was filling, tears of ecstacy streamed 
down his cheeks, without the power or inclination to repress them." 

Such is William Wirt's vivid pi(5lure of that Court House 
scene, the sequel to which is so well known. The jury had 
scarcely left the bar, when they returned with a verdicfl of 
one penny damages ; a motion for a new trial was overruled, 
and amidst the redoubled acclamations of the people, this 
forest-born Demosthenes was borne upon their shoulders otit 



IWIRICK HENRY. 223 

of the Court House and around the green. In that brief 
hour he had taken captive the heart of Virginia, and had 
burst upon the public ga/.e like Minerva from the brain of 
Jove, in full armor and with a mighty war shout. Hence- 
forth he was to go forth conquering and to conquer. 

In 1764, Mr. Henry removed from Hanover to the 
County of Louisa, and resided at a place called "The 
Roundabout." It was in the fall of this year that he had an 
opportunity of distinguishing himself upon a new theatre. 
A contest occurred in the House of Burgesses in the case of 
Mr. James Littlepage, the returned member for the County 
of Hanover. The rival candidate and petitioner was Na- 
thaniel West Dandridge. The charge against Mr. Little- 
page was bribery and corruption. The parties were heard 
by their counsel, before the committee on Privileges and 
Kle(5lions, and Mr. Henry was on this occasion employed by 
Mr. Dandridge. He here struck amazement into the com- 
mittee by his eloquence and brilliant display on the great 
subje(5l of the rights of suffrage " superior to anything that 
had been heard before within those walls." 

On the ist of May, 1765, Mr. Henry entered the House of 
Burgesses as the representative from Louisa County, and by 
some resolutions which he introduced, in reference to The Stamp 
A(5l. obtained the honor of being the first to inaugurate open 
opposition to the oppressive measures of the British Crown. 
This opposition was doomed to result in a bloody struggle, but 
through crimson fields of revolution the desperate patriots 
marched to victory and blood-bought independence. In 1767, 
Mr. Henry removed from Louisa to his native county, Han- 
over, but was continued a member of the House of Burgesses. 
In 1769, he was admitted to the Bar of the General Court, 
and rose to distinguished prominence in his profession. 

But, events were hurrying on a mighty confli(5l between 
the mother country and the Colonies, and soon Patrick 
Henry was to di.splay his complex genius upon a wider 
field of a<5lion. He was to become the ardent, imposing, 
da/./.ling orator of the Revolution, moving men not only by 
that irresistible elociuencc which took them captive, but 



234 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

also leading them whither he would, by a nerve and resolution 
which was indomitable. 

Much has already, in other articles in this work, been said 
of Patrick Henry's eloquence and zeal in the Virginia Conven- 
tions of 1774, 1775, and 1776 ; also of his brilliant appeals in the 
Continental Congress of 1774 and of 1775. In this last year, 
1775, he lost the wife of his youth, who had shared the changing 
fortunes of his early life. Soon after, he sold the farm in 
Hanover called " Scotch Town," on which he had resided, 
and purchased about ten thousand acres of land in Henry 
County. This county was formed in 1776 from Pittsylvania 
County, and named in his honor, as was subsequently the 
neighboring county of Patrick, carved from Henry County 
in 1 79 1. His estate in Henry County was known as 
" Leatherwood." 

In April, 1775, Lord Dunmore, Governor of the Colony of 
Virginia, removed secretly all the powder from the magazine at 
Williamsburg, to a sloop of war lying in the York River. This 
step naturally aroused the deepest feelings of resentment 
among the people, and Patrick Henry, stepping to the front, 
placed himself at the head of the company of Captain Sam- 
uel Meredith (who resigned in his favor), of Hanover 
County, and marched upon Williamsburg. The effecft of 
this movement was like magic. Companies started up on all 
sides, and it is said that five thousand men, at least, were in 
arms and crossing the country to crowd around Henry's stand- 
ard and support it with their lives. The march was condu(5led 
with the greatest regard for private rights, and in perfedl 
order. But, this advance meant an appeal to Heaven, that 
la.st resort 7(.<hcn there can be no judge on earth. This crisis Pat- 
rick Henry saw, although the patriots in Williamsburg were 
not prepared to grasp the situation. Messenger after messen- 
ger was sent to meet Captain Henry and beg him to desist and 
discharge his men. In vain; he had resolved to effedl his pur- 
pose or perish in the attempt. Dunmore, alarmed at his war- 
like advance, sent out to meet him, and paid a satisfa(5lor5' 
equivalent of ^330 for the powder. Lord Dunmore, in conse- 
quence of these proceedings, issued a proclamation denouncing 



/\1 J'h'/i 7x ///-;. \7v' ) '. 325 

"a certain Patrick Henr}-, of the County of Hanover, and a 
number of deluded followers"; but, his threats were useless, 
and this brave man b}' this brave acft became enthroned more 
permanently in the hearts of his people. 

In June, 1775, Mr. Henry was appointed Colonel of 
the First Virginia Regiment, and Commander-in-Chief of 
all the forces of the Colony. He at once went into camp at 
Williamsburg and ardently began recruiting and disciplin- 
ing the troops. lyOrd Dunmore (having fled from Wil- 
liamsburg) was at this time ravaging the shores of the 
Chesapeake and threatening Norfolk, and the Committee of 
Safety was compelled to take prompt adtion. Colonel Wil- 
liam Woodford, of the Second Virginia Regiment, was de- 
tached at the head of a greater portion of the forces against the 
enemy, and with his few, raw, Virginia recruits drove back 
the best trained English soldiers and gained a brilliant 
victory at the battle of Great Bridge. The adlion of the 
Committee of Safety in selecting Woodford (who had distin- 
guished himself in the French and Indian war) to command 
this expedition was in consequence of his military experience. 
But this promotion of Woodford over Colonel Henry, and 
later, the advancement in the continental line to the rank of 
Brigadier- General of two Colonels, to whose appointments 
his own was prior, so wounded Henry's spirit that he resigned 
his commission. Public feeling rose high in sympathy with 
him, and his resignation nearly produced a mutiny in the 
Army. But though adverse influences were at work against 
Henry's career as a soldier, the Committee of Safety and 
Congress had " builded better" than they knew. Guided 
by The Hand into whose keeping they had committed their 
destinies, they were setting aside from the perils of war, one, 
who in the conducfl of the Revolution, they could not spare 
from their councils. That clarion voice must not be hushed 
in the wild din of battle ; that leader of men's thoughts must 
not be given to the mercy of the sword ! 

The following is the notice of Colonel Henrj-'s resignation, 
in I'urdie's pai)er, of March i, 1776 : 

" Yesterday moniin<( the troops in this city (^Williaiiislnirj^) being 



236 THE GOVERNORS OE \'IRGE\IA. 

informed that Patrick Henry, Esquire, Coniniaudcr-in-Chief of the Vir- 
ginia forces, was about to leave them, the whole went into deep mourning, 
and, being under arms, waited on him at his lodgings, where they addressed 
him in the following manner," etc., etc. 

Immediateh^ after resigning hi.s commission as Colonel, 
and withdrawing from the immediate concerns of war, Pat- 
rick Henry was eledled delegate from Hanover County to 
the Convention which was to meet May 6, 1776, at 
Williamsburg. On the 12th of June, in this Convention, was 
adopted the " Bill of Rights," and on the 29th of the same 
month, " The Constitution, or Form of Government," was 
unanimously adopted by Virginia. These two celebrated 
papers were prepared by George Mason, of Virginia, and 
statid a permanent monument to his patriotism and ability. 

THE CONSTITUTION 

OR 
FORM OF GOVERNMENT 

AGREED TO AND RESOLVED UPON BY THE 

DELEGATES AND REPRESENTATIVES 

OF THE SEVERAL, 
COUNTIES AND CORPORATIONS 

OF VIRGINIA. 

(Unanimously adopted, June 29, 1776.) 

I. Whereas George the third. King of Great Britain and Ireland, and 
elector of Hanover, heretofore intrusted with the exercise of kingly office 
in this government, hath endeavoured to prcvcrt the same into a detesta- 
ble and insupportable tyranny, by putting his negative on laws the most 
wholesome and necessary tor the publick good : 

By denying his governours permission to post laws of immediate and 
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation for his assent, 
and, when so suspended, neglecting to attend to them for many years: 

Bv refusing to pass certain other laws, unless the persons to be l)ene- 
fitted by them would relinquish the inestimable right of representation in 
the legislature : 

By dissolving legislative Assemblies repeatedly and continually, for 
opposing with manly fimuiess his invasions of the rights of the jieople : 

When dissolved, by refusing to call others for a long space of time, 
thereby leaving the political system without any legislative head: 

By endeavouring to prevent the population ol our country, and for 
that purpose, obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners: 

By keepi ng among us, in times of peace, standing armies and ships of war : 



PA TRICK HEN A' ) \ 227 

By affecting to render the military independent of, and superiour to, 
the civil power : 

By combining with others to subject us to a foreign jurisdiction, giv- 
ing his assent to their pretended acts of legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent : 

For depriving us of the benefits of trial by jury : 

For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences: 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves 
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever: 

By plundering our seas, ravaging our coasts, burning our towns, and 
destroying the lives of our people : 

By inciting insurrections of our fellow-subjects, with the allurements 
of forfeiture and confiscation : 

By prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us, those very 
negroes whom, by an inhuman use of his negative, he hath refused us per- 
mission to exclude by law : 

By endeavouring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the mer- 
ciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished 
destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions of existence : 

By transporting, at this time, a large army of foreign mercenaries, to 
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already Ijegun with 
circumstances of cruelty and perfidy unworthy the head of a civilized na- 
tion : 

By answering our repeated petitions for redress with a repetition of 
injuries: And, finally, by aliandoning the helm of government, and 
declaring us out of his allegiance and jirotection. 

By which several acts of misrule, the government of this country, as 
formerly exercised under the crown of Great Britain, is TOTALLY DIS- 
SOLVED. 

II. We therefore, the delegates and representatives of the good people 
of Virginia, having maturely considered the premises, and viewing with 
great concern the deplorable condition to which this once happy countrj' 
must be reduced, unless some regular, adequate mode of civil polity is 
speedily adopted, and in compliance with a recommendation of the Gen- 
eral Congress, do ordain and declare the future fortu of government of Vir- 
ginia to be as foUoweth : 

III. The legislative, executive, and judiciary departments shall be 
separate and distinct, so that neither exercise the powers properly belong- 
ing to the other ; nor shall any person exercise the powers of more than 
one of them at the same time, except that the justices of the county courts 
shall lie eligible to either House of Assembly. 

IV. The legislative shall be formed of two distinct l)ranches, who, 
together, shall lie a coni])lclc legislature. They shall meet once, or oftener, 



','38 THE (;(>r/:h'.\()h's (U- \ik(.i.\i.i. 

every year, and shall be called the General Asseinl)ly of Virginia. 

V. One of these shall be called the House of Delegates, and consist of 
two representatives to be chosen for each county, and for the district of 
West Augusta, annually, of such men as actually reside in and are free- 
holders of the same, or duly qualified according to law, and also one dele- 
gate or representative to be chosen annually for the citv of Williamsburg, 
and one for the borough of Norlolk, and a representative for each of such 
other cities and boroughs as maj- hereafter be allowed particular representa- 
tion by the legislature ; but when any city or borough shall so decrease as 
that the number of persons having right of suffrage therein shall have been 
for the space of seven years successively less than half the number of voters 
in some one county in Virginia, such city or borough thenceforward shall 
cease to send a delegate or representative to the assembly. 

VI. The other shall be called the Senate, and consist of twenty-four 
members, of whom thirteen shall constitute a House to proceed on business, 
for whose election the different counties shall be divided into twenty-four 
districts, and each county of the respective district, at the time of the elec- 
tion of its delegates, shall vote for one Senator, who is actually a resident 
and freeholder within the district, or dul}' qualified according to law, and 
is upwards of twenty-five years of age ; and the sheriffs of each county 
within five days at farthest after the last county election in the district, 
shall meet at some convenient place, and from the poll so taken in their 
respective counties return as a Senator the man who shall have the great- 
est number of votes in the whole district. To keep up this Assembly by 
rotation, the districts shall be equally divided into four classes, and num- 
bered by lot. At the end of one year after the general election , the six mem- 
bers elected by the first division shall be displaced, and the vacancies thereby 
occasioned supplied from such class or division, by new election, in the 
manner aforesaid. This rotation shall be applied to each division, accord- 
ing to its immber, and continued in due oider annually. 

VH. The right of suffrage in the election of n'.cmbers for both Houses 
shall remain as exercised at present, and each House shall choi.se its own 
speaker, appoint its own officers, settle its own rules of jirocecding, and 
direct writs of election for supplying intermediate vacancies. 

VHI. AH laws originate in the House of Delegates, to be a])proved or 
rejected by the Senate, or to be amended with the consent of the House of 
Delegates; except money bills, which in no instance shall be altered by 
the vSenate, but wholly approved or rejected. 

IX. A Governour, or chief magistrate, shall be chosen annually, by 
joint ballot of both Houses, to be taken in each house respectively, depos- 
ited in the conference room, the boxes examined jointly by a commitee of 
each house, and the numbers severally reported lo them, that the appoint- 
ments may be entered, (which shall be the mode of taking the joint ballot 
of both Houses in all cases) who shall not continue in that office longer 
than three years successively, nor be eligil)lc until the expiration of four 



IWI KICK IIESRY. 229 

rears after he sluill liave been out of that office. An adcciuate, l)ul mod- 
erate salary, shall be settled on him during his continnance in office ; and 
he shall, with advice of a Council of Slate, exercise the executive powers 
of government according to the laws of this commonwealth ; and shall 
not, under any pretence, exercise any power or prerogative by virtue of 
any law, statute, or custom, of ENGLAND : But he shall, with the advice 
of the Council of State, have the power of granting reprieves or pardons, 
except where prosecution shall have been carried on by the House of Del- 
egates, or the law shall otherwise particularly direct ; in which cases, no 
reprieve or pardon shall be granted, but by resolve of the House of Dele- 
gates. 

X. Either House of the General Assembly may adjourn themselves 
respcctivelv. The Govcrnour shall not prorogue or adjourn the Assemljly 
during their sitting, nor dissolve them at any time; but he shall, if neces- 
sary, either by advice of the Council of State, or on application of a 
majority of the House of Delegates, call them l)cfore the time to which 
they shall stand prorogued or adjourned. 

XI. A Privy Council, or Council of State, consisting of eight mem- 
l)ers, shall be chosen Vjy joint ballot of both Houses of Assembly, either 
from their own members or the people at large, to assist in the administra- 
tion of government. They shall annually choose out oi their own mem- 
bers a president, who, in case of the death, inability, or necessary absence 
of the Governour from the government, shall act as Lieutenant-Govern- 
our. Four members shall be sufficient to act, and their advice and pro- 
ceedings shall be entered of record, and signed by the members present 
(to any part whereof any member may enter his dissent) to be laid before 
the General Assembly, when called for by them. This Council may appoint 
their own clerk, who shall have a salary settled by law, and take an oath 
of secrecy in such matters as he shall be directed by the board to conceal. 
A sum of money appropriated to that purpose shall be divided annually 
among the members, in proportion to their attendance ; and they shall be 
incapable, during their continuance in office, of sitting in either House 
of Assembly. Two members shall be removed by joint ballot of Ijoth Houses 
of Assembly at the end of every three years, and be ineligible for the three 
next years. These vacancies, as well as those occasioned by death or 
incapacity, shall be supplied by new elections, in the same manner. 

XH. The delegates for Virginia to the Continental Congress shall be 
chosen annually, or superseded in the meantime bj- joint ballot of both 
Houses of Assembl}-. 

XHI. The present militia officers shall be continued, and vacancies 
supplied by appointment of the Governour, with the advice of the Privy 
Council, or recommendations from the respective county courts ; but the 
Governour and Council shall have a power of suspending any officer, and 
ordering a court-martial on complaint of misbehaviour or inaliility, or to 
supply vacancies of officers happening when in actual service. The Gov- 



2;]U THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

criiour ma}- cniljody the militia, with the advice of the Privy Council ; 
and, when embodied, shall alone have the direction of the militia under 
the laws of the country. 

The two Houses of Assembly shall, by joint ballot, appoint Judges of 
the Supreme Court of Appeals, and General Court, Judges in Chancery, 
Judges of Admiralty, Secretary, and the Attorney-General, to be commis- 
sioned by the Governour, and continue in office during good behaviour. 
In case of death, incapacity, or resignation, the Governour, with the 
advice of the Privy Council, shall appoint persons to succeed in office, to 
be approved or displaced by both Houses. These officers shall have fixed 
and adequate salaries, and, together with all others holding lucrative 
offices, and all ministers of the Gospel of every denomination, be incapa- 
ble of being elected members of either House of Assembly, or the Privy 
Council. 

XV. The Governour, with the advice of the Privy Council, shall 
appoint Justices of the Peace for the counties; and in case of vacancies, or 
a necessity of increasing the number hereafter, such appointments to be 
made upon the recommendation of the respective county courts. The 
present acting Secretary in Virginia, and Clerks of all the County Courts, 
shall continue in office. In case of vacancies, either by death, incapacity, 
or resignation, a Secretary shall be appointed as before directed, and the 
Clerks, by the respective courts. The present and future Clerks shall hold 
their offices during good behaviour, to be judged of and determined in the 
General Court. The Sheriff's and Coroners shall be nominated by the 
respective courts, approved by the Governour, with the advice of the 
Privy Council, and commissioned by the Governour. The Justices shall 
appoint Constables and all fees of the aforesaid officers be regulated by 
law. 

XVI. The Governour, when he is out of office, and others offending 
against the state, either by mal-administration, corruption, or other means 
by which the safety of the state may be endangered, shall be impeachable 
by the House of Delegates; Such impeachment to be prosecuted by the 
Attorney-General, or such other person or persons as the House may 
appoint in the General Court, according to the laws of the land. If found 
guilty, he or they shall be either forever disabled to hold any office 
under government, or removed from such office pro tempore, or subjected 
to such pains or penalties as the law shall direct. 

XVII. If all, or any of the Judges of the General Court, shall, on good 
grounds (to be judged of by the House Delegates) be accused of any of the 
crimes or off'ences before-mentioned, such House of Delegates may in like 
manner, impeach the Judge or Judges so accused, to be prosecuted in the 
Court of Appeals; and he or they, if found guilty, shall be punished in 
the same manner as is prescribed in the preceding clause. 

XVIII. Commissions and grants shall run, IN THE NAME OF THE 
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and bear test by the Governour with 



p.} TRICK HENR ) '. 23 1 

the seal of tlie comiiioinvealth annexed. Writs shall run in the same man- 
ner, and hear test by the clerks of the several courts. Indictments shall con- 
clude, AGAINvST THE PEACE AND DIGNITY OF THE COMMON- 
WEALTH. 

XIX. A treasurer shall be appointed annually by joint ballot of both 
Houses. 

XX. All escheats, penalties, and forfeitures, heretofore going to the 
King, shall go to the Commonwealth, save only such as the legislature may 
abolish, or otherwise provide for. 

XXI. The territories contained within the charters erecting the colo- 
nics, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, are hereby 
ceded, released, and forever confirmed to the people of those colonies 
respectively, with all the rights of property, jurisdiction, and govern- 
ment, and all other rights whatsoever which might at any time heretofore 
have been claimed by Virginia, except the free navigation and use of the 
rivers Potonniiaik and Pohomokc, with the property of the Virginia 
shores or strands bordering on either of the said rivers, and all improve- 
ments which have been or shall be made thereon. The western and 
northern extent of Virginia shall in all other respects stand as fixed by 
the charter of king James the first, in the year one thousand six hundred 
and nine, and by the publick treaty of peace between the courts of Great 
Britain and France in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty 
three ; unless, by act of legislature, one or more territories shall hereafter 
t)e laid off, and governments established westward of the Allegheny 
mountains. And no purchase of lands shall be made of the Indian natives 
but on behalf of the publick, by authority of the General Assembly. 

XXII. In order to introduce this government, the representatives of 
the people met in Convention, shall choose a Governor and Privy Council, 
also such other officers directed to be chosen by both Houses as may be 
judged necessary to be immediately appointed. The vSenate to be first 
chosen by the people, to continue until the last day of March next, and 
the other officers until the end of the succeeding session of Assembly. In 
case of vacancies, the speaker of either House shall issue writs for new 
elections. 



The .salary of the Governor to be appointed under the 
new Constitution, was immediately fixed by a resolution of 
the Convention, at one thousand pounds per annum, and the 
House proceeded to eledl forthwith the first Republican 
Governor for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The question 
was decided on the first ballot, and Patrick Henry was the 
choice of these representatives of the people. In his reply 
"To the Honourable, the President and House of Conven- 
tion," in concluding his letter of acceptance, he says : 



2?j2 the cover mors OE VIRCUNIA. 

" I sh;ill enter ii])on the duties of my office, whenever you, gentlemen, 
shall be pleased to direct ; relying upon the known wisdom and virtue of 
your honourable house to supply my defecfts, and to give permanency and 
success to that system of government which you have formed and which 
is so wisely calculated to secure equal liberty, and advance human happi- 
ness." 

On the day that Virginia adopted her Constitution, she 
raised her chosen son to the highest office within her gift. 
And so, Patrick Henry, turned by an unseen Hand from the 
path to military fame, must wear the civic wreath with which 
his people crowned him. The brilliant orator, the daring 
soldier, had now the statesman's honors to bear before the 
world, and as a minister of the public weal, must prove 
worthy of the high confidence of his compatriots. 

The following extradt from the Williamsburg Gazette 
affords a realistic picfture of colonial life at this perilous 
time. On the 15th of May, 1776, the Convention of Virginia 
passed Resolutions instructing their delegates in Congress to 
propose to that body "to declare the United Colonies free 
and independent state^." 

Extra(5l from Williamsburg Gazette, of May 17th, 1776 : 

"In consequence of the above resolutions, universally regarded as the 
only door which will lead to safety and prosperity, some gentlemen made 
a handsome collection for the purpose of treating the soldiery, who next 
day (May i6th) were paraded in Waller's Grove, before Brigadier-General 
Lewis, attended by the gentlemen of the Committee of Safety, the mem- 
bers of the General Convention, the inhabitants of this City, etc., etc. 
The resolutions being read aloud to the Army, the following toasts were 
given, each of them accompanied by a discharge of the Artillery and small 
arms, and the acclamations of all present : 

" I. The American Independent States. 

"2. The Grand Congress of the United States and their respective 
Legislatures. 

"3. General Washington and victory to the American arms. 

"The Union Flag of the American States waved upon the Capitol 
during the whole of this ceremony ; which being ended the soldiers par- 
took of the refreshments prepared for them by the affection of their coun- 
trymen, and the evening concluded with illuminations and other demon- 
strations of joy ; every one seeming pleased that the domination of Great 
Britain was now at an end, so wickedly and tyrannically exercised for 
these twelve or thirteen years past, notwithstanding our repeated prayers 
and remonstrances for recbress. 



PA TRICK HENR Y. 233 

' ' The Union Flag of the American States ' ' here spoken 
of, was probabl)^ one of the ' ' Union flags ' ' so frequently 
mentioned in the newspapers of those days, viz.: An ordinary 
English red ensign, bearing the Union jack, and carrying 
some patriotic motto, such as "Liberty," "Liberty and 
Property," " Liberty and Union," etc., etc. 

In investigating the chara(5ter of the earliest banners 
borne by the revolutionary colonists in the South, we find 
that the one adopted in South Carolina, September, 1775, 
was a large blue flag, made with a white crescent in the 
dexter corner. William Moultrie, Colonel of the Second 
South Carolina Regiment, seledled this design, as the 
First and Second Sovith Carolina Regiments wore in front 
of their caps a silver crescent. The flag bore also the 
word "Liberty" across its centre. The first armed ves- 
sels commissioned by Washington sailed under a white 
flag with a green pine-tree. A yellow ensign bearing 
the device of a rattlesnake in the attitude of striking, with 
the motto, " Don't tread on me," had also been pre- 
viously used. This emblem was suggested, probably, by the 
cuts displayed at the head of many newspapers of the time, 
which represented a snake divided into thirteen parts, each 
bearing the abbreviation of a Colony with the motto beneath, 
"Join or Die," typifying the necessity of union. On the 
ist January, 1776, the tri-colored American banner, not yet 
spangled with stars, but showing thirteen alternate stripes of 
red and white, with the united red and white crosses of St. 
George and St. Andrew on a blue ground in the corner, was 
unfurled over the new Continental Army around Boston. It 
was given to the breeze at a critical moment, for this untried 
army consisted of but 9650 men. 

The first recorded legislative adlion for the adoption of a 
national flag, was on June 14, 1777, when Congress resolved 
"that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen 
stripes, alternate red and white ; that the Union be thirteen 
stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." 
It is not known by whom the stars were originally suggested. 

x\fter the Constitution of Virginia had been adopted, her 

XVI 



334 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGE\IA. 

Statesmen next proceeded to seledl a device and motto for her 
seal. It seems like turning our eyes back to the first crimson 
streak upon the horizon of America, as we recall that earliest 
seal used upon Virginia soil when King James I. ordered 
April ID, 1606, that his portraiture should be engraven on 
the one side with the inscription, " Sigilvm Regis Magnae 
Britaniae, Francise et Hibernige," and on the other side, his 
Arms, with the inscription, " Pro Concilio Primse Colonise 
Virginiae." 

To Queen Elizabeth's titles had been added that of 
" Queen of Virginia," and James I., who was already the 
titular sovereign of four realms, now accepted as the motto 
for the London Company's coat-of-arms, " Lo ! Virginia 
gives a fifth crown." Although the accession of James VI. 
of Scotland, in 1603, to the throne of England as James I. 
really joined the two nations in one, still the countries were 
not legislatively united until 1707. After this union the 
motto of the Virginia arms consisted of the English shield, 
with the inscription, " En Dat Virginia Quartam." 

During the reign of Queen Anne, 17 10, the broad seal of 
the Colony of Virginia represented a crowned female figure 
extending the symbol of the cross to an Indian, who, kneeling, 
offers her the first fruits of the land. The inscription on this 
seal was " Sigillvm Provinciae Virginia in America," " En 
Dat Virginia Quartam." 

And now, last and best, we have the seal as proposed in 
the Convention of 1776, by Mr. George Wythe, and chosen 
by that body. On the obverse side is a female figure resting 
on a spear with one hand and holding a sword in the other, 
representing Virtue ; her foot is pressed upon the neck of 
Tyranny, indicated by a prostrate man, with a crown falling 
from his head, a broken chain in his left hand and a scourge 
in his right. Over the head of Virtue is engraved, "Vir- 
ginia," and beneath her feet is inscribed, "Sic Semper 
Tyrannis." In 1779, when Thomas Jefferson was Governor, 
the General Assembly ordered ' ' Perseverando " to be en- 
graved on the reverse side of the great seal of Virginia. 
Better than the portraiture of Kings, or the emblazoned 



PA TRICK HENR Y. 235 

shields of heraldry, is this sacred emblem of our liberty. 
Through it we read the souls of those who stamped their 
image on it, and learn that human happiness has no security 
but in freedom ; and that freedom has no foundation but in 
virtue. 

To return now to the consideration of Patrick ' Henry's 
life, we find that as soon as he was eledled Governor prepara- 
tions were made to provide a suitable residence for him at 
the Capital. The Governor's palace, together with the out- 
buildings belonging to it, in Williamsburg, having by a 
previous Resolution of the Convention, been appropriated as 
a public hospital, was, by a Resolution of the first of July, 
restored to its original purpose, and the committee who 
had been appointed to notify the Governor of his ele(5lion, 
was now direcfted to inform him of the desire of the Conven- 
tion that he would make the palace his future home. On 
the fifth of July, the sum of one thousand pounds was directed 
by the House to be laid out in furniture for the palace, 
including the furniture already there belonging to the coun- 
try ; and, on the same day, the Governor and members of the 
Privy Council took their respedlive oaths of office, and entered 
at once upon the discharge of their constitutional duties. 

The autumn of 1776, the j^ear in which Patrick Henry 
was made Governor of Virginia, was one of the desperate 
periods of the Revolutions, "Men's hearts failing them for 
fear," and darkness seemed to have settled over the patriotic 
struggle. The disaster at Long Island had occurred, by 
which a considerable portion of the American Army had 
been cut off — a garrison of between three and four thousand 
men had been taken at Fort Washington — and the American 
General, with the small remainder, disheartened and in want 
of every necessary, was retreating through the Jerseys before 
an overwhelming power. 

It was of this time that Thomas Paine wrote in ' ' The 
American Crisis, No. i," 

" These are the times that try men's souls." 
But, in the midst of the storm which raged around him, 
George Washington stood unmoved. Relying upon the 



23(5 



THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGIN El. 



justness of his cause, which had been submitted to the 
arbitrament of the sword, he was resolved to do — or die. 
In these moments of supreme trial, the Legislature of 
Virginia swerved for a brief season from its fealty to Repub- 
lican principles. According to Thomas Jefferson : 

"In December, 1776, our circumstances being much distressed, it 
was proposed in the house of delegates to create a DiHator, invested with 
every power, legislative, executive, andjudiciar)', civil and military, of life 
and of death, over our persons and over our properties ; and in June, 1781, 
again under calamity, the same proposition was repeated, and wanted a 
few votes only of being passed." 

That Mr. Henry was thought of for this office at both of 
these critical jun(5lures, there seems to be little doubt, but 
those who have studied his noble charadler are well assured 
that no temptation to personal elevation would ever have 
led him to deny that watchword, " Liberty or Death,'" which 
he had given to his people. 

In the year 1777, Patrick Henry married for his second 
wife, Dorothea Dandridge, granddaughter of Governor Alex- 
ander Spotswood, and daughter of Nathaniel West Dan- 
dridge, a descendant of Captain John West, the brother of 
L/Ord Delaware, once colonial Governor, also, of Virginia. 
Patrick Henry was re-eledted to the office of Governor until 
the May session of 1779, when no longer eligible, according to 
the Constitution, he retired, not, however, without an effort 
on the part of his friends to retain him in his responsible 
position upon some legal technicality touching his appoint- 
ment for the first term. But, he set the matter at rest by a 
letter to the Speaker, and retired at the expiration of his third 
term to his estate, " Leatherwood," in Henry County. In 
1780 he was again in the State Assembly, serving adlively in 
that body until 1784. On the 17th November, 1784, Mr. 
Henry was again eledled Governor of Virginia, his term of 
three years to commence on the 30th of that month. On the 
29th of November, 1786, he resigned his position as Gov- 
ernor while yet a year remained of his constitutional term. 
Although simple and unostentatious in his style of living, he 
found himself involved in debt at this moment, and private 



p. I TRICK HENR } '. 337 

honor rose superior to public duty. He determined to seek 
in the adlive pracftice of the law means adequate to dispel 
his financial obligations, and during the next six years he 
attended regularly the distridl courts of Prince Edward and 
New London. His success was abundant, and relieved him 
from the financial pressure so galling to his lofty soul. On 
the 4th of December, 1786, Mr. Henry was appointed by the 
Legislature one of seven deputies from the Commonwealth, 
to meet a Convention proposed to be held in Philadelphia on 
the following May, for the purpose of revising the Federal 
Constitution. His name follows Washington's on the list, 
viz.: George Washington, Patrick Henry, Edmund Ran- 
dolph, John Blair, James Madison, George Mason, and 
George Wythe. The same cause, however, which compelled 
Mr. Henry's retirement from the executive chair of his state, 
disabled him now from obeying this almost imperative call of 
his country, and well may be imagined the confli(5l in that 
honorable breast between private and public duty. The 
Federal Constitution, the result of the Philadelphia Conven- 
tion, was not viewed with favor by Mr. Henry, although it 
had the sandlion of the revered name of Washington. He 
feared that it threatened the liberties of his country and 
endangered the rights of the sovereign states. A Convention 
was called to decide the fate of this instrument in Virginia, 
and Mr. Henry was chosen a member for the County of Prince 
Edward. It met in Richmond, on the 2d June, 1788, and 
rarely has so much talent ever been exhibited in a deliberative 
body in this country. Says William Wirt: 

"We may mention, therefore, Mr. Madison, the late president of the 
United States; Mr. Marshall, the chief Justice ; and Mr. Monroe, now the 
President. What will the reader think of a body in which men like 
these were only among their equals? Yet such is the fact; for there were 
those sages of other days, Pendleton and Wythe ; there was seen displayed 
the Spartan vigour and compa<5tness of George Nicholas; and there shone 
the radiant genius and sensibility of Grayson ; the Roman energy and the 
Attic wit of George Mason was there ; and there also, the classic taste and 
harmony of P^dmund Randolph ; ' the splendid conflagration ' of the high- 
minded Innis ; and the matchless eloquence of the immortal Henry." 

In this meeting of intelledlual giants the course of discus- 



238 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

sion ran high, and for ahiiost the only time in public life, 
Patrick Henry failed to carry his point. After the Constitu- 
tion of the United States had been formally adopted, the 
government organized, and Washington eledled President, 
Mr. Henry gradually became reconciled to the situation. 
His opposition in the Convention had not been wholly in 
vain, for he secured a variety of amendments, afterwards 
incorporated into the Constitution. In 1794 he retired 
from the bar, with an ample estate, and removed to 
his seat, " Red Hill," in Charlotte County. In 1794 he 
was eledled United States Senator, and in 1796 Governor 
of Virginia, but declined both offices, as he did in 1795, 
the appointment by Washington as Secretary of State, and 
subsequently that of Minister to PVance, by President Adams. 
After Mr. Henry had declined the position of Secretary of 
State, in 1795, it appears that General Washington desired 
his acceptance of the Chief-Justiceship of the Supreme Court 
of the United States. But having bid a final adieu to his 
profession, in 1794, he retired to the bosom of his family 
and never again made his appearance in a public characfler. 
It is true that in March, 1799, yielding to the request of 
Washington and other distinguished persons, and desirous of 
doing his part to avert what he feared would be the disastrous 
results of the " Resolutions of '98," passed by Virginia, he 
offered himself for the State Senate in his distrid,. It was 
only necessary for him to indicate his wish to fill any public 
position and he was only too gladly eledled. His speech at 
Charlotte Court House in this connedlion was his last, and is 
said to have been worthy of his fame. After he had spoken the 
polls were opened and he was chosen by his accustomed com- 
manding majority. "As he finished he literally descended 
into the arms of the uncontrollable throng and was borne about 
in triumph." Perhaps, with a prescience sometimes given 
to humanity, they felt that his sun had set in all its glory. 
Too true was this prophetic instindl, for in three brief months 
thereafter, their idol's voice was hushed forever. He died on 
the 6th of June, 1799, and his ashes were tearfully laid to 
rest at " Red Hill," his seat in Charlotte County. 



PA TRICK HENR Y. 339 

William Wirt thus beautifully describes Mr. Henry when 
he bade a final adieu to his profession and sought a season 
of repose, so well earned in a long period of devotion to 
public needs and private duties : 

"He retired, loaded with honors, public and professional; and car- 
ried with him the admiration, the gratitude, the confidence, and the love 
of his country. No man had ever passed through so long a life of public 
service with a reputation more perfedlly unspotted. Nor had Mr. Henry, 
on any occasion, sought security from censure, by that kind of prudent 
silence and temporizing neutrality, which politicians so frequently ob- 
serve. On the contrary, his course had been uniformly active, bold, 
intrepid, and independent. On every great subjedl of public interest, the 
part which he had taken was open, decided, manly; his country saw his 
motives, heard his reasons, approved his conduct, rested upon his virtue, 
and his vigour; and contemplated with amazement, the evolution and 
unremitted display of his transcendent talents. For more than thirty 
years he had now stood before that country — open to the scrutiny and the 
censure of the invidious — yet he retired, not only without spot or blemish, 
but with all his laurels blooming full and fresh upon him — followed by the 
blessings of his almost adoring countrymen, and cheered by that most 
exquisite of all earthly possessions — the consciousness of having, in deed 
and in truth, played well his part. He had now too, become disembar- 
rassed of debt; his fortune was affluent; and he enjoyed, in his retire- 
ment, that ease and dignity, which no man ever more richly deserved." 

Although Patrick Henry began life in the school of pov- 
erty, in his later years he enjoyed an independence which 
resulted partly from a remunerative profession, and partly 
from judicious purchases of lands. In his habits of life he 
was remarkably simple, always frugal and abstemious, and 
his example as the head of a family, as well as the Chief 
Executive of his native state, is without reproach. His 
conversation was remarkably pure and chaste, and he was 
never heard to take the name of his Maker in vain. Well 
ma}^ be repeated with undiminished fervor the conclusion of 
General Henry Lee's touching obituary : 

"As long as our rivers flow and mountains stand, so long will your 
excellence and worth be the theme of our homage and endeanuents; and 
Virginia, bearing in mind her loss, will say to rising generations, ' Imi- 
tate Heurj-.' " 



LXXI. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

Governor. 
June I, 1779, to June, 1781. 

Upon the retirement of Patrick Henry from the executive 
chair, Thomas Jefferson was chosen by the General Assem- 
bly Governor of Virginia, on June i, 1779. He was the 
son of Peter and Jane Randolph Jefferson, and was born at 
"Shadwell," Albemarle County, Virginia, on April 2, 1742. 
His father, a pradlical surveyor, had been chosen with Joshua 
Fry, (Professor of mathematics at William and Mary College), 
to continue the boundary line between Virginia and North 
Carolina, a work already begun by Colonel Byrd. Colonel 
Jefferson and Mr. Fry were also employed together in mak- 
ing a map of Virginia. This association perhaps had a con- 
trolling influence on Thomas Jefferson's life, as it inspired 
his father to bestow upon him the inestimable benefit of a lib- 
eral education. He was sent to William and Mary College, 
at Williamsburg, Virginia, in the spring of 1760, and re- 
mained there two years. In alluding to this period, in his 
autobiography, he says : 

"It was my great, good fortune, and what probably fixed the desti- 
nies of my life, that Dr. William Small, of Scotland, was then Professor of 
Mathematics, a man profound in most of the useful branches of science, 
with a happy talent of communication, correct and gentlemanly manners, 
and an enlarged and liberal mind. He, most happily for me, became 
soon attached to me, and made me his daily companion when not engaged 
in the school ; and from his conversation I got my first views of the ex- 
pansion of science, and of the system of things in which we are placed. 
Fortunately, the philosophical chair became vacant soon after my arrival 
at College, and he was appointed to fill it, per interim ; and he was the first 
who ever gave, in that College, regular lectures in Ethics, Rhetoric, and 
Belles-Lettres. He returned to Europe in 1762, having previousl}' filled up 
the measure of his goodness to me by procuring for me, from his most 

240 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 241 

intimate frieud, George Wythe, a reception as a student of Law under his 
direction, and introduced me to the acquaintance and familiar table of 
Governor Fauquier, the ablest man who had ever filled that office. With 
him, and at his table, Dr. Small and Mr. Wythe, his amid omnium hora- 
rum, and myself, formed a partie quarree, and to the habitual conversa- 
tions on these occasions I owed much instruction. Mr. Wythe continued 
to be my faithful and beloved mentor in yotith, and my most affectionate 
friend through life. In 1767 he led me into the practice of the Law at the 
bar of the General Court, at which I continued until the Revolution shut 
up the Courts of Justice." 

In 1769, at the age of twenty-six, Thomas Jefferson was 
chosen to represent his county in the House of Burgesses, 
where he at once took a stand with the opponents of parlia- 
mentary encroachment. At this, his first session, he intro- 
duced a bill empowering the owners of slaves to manumit 
them if they thought proper; but it was defeated, and its 
policy not full}- embraced until 1782. It is calculated that 
upwards of 10,000 slaves obtained freedom in Virginia 
between 1782 and 1791, after the passage of a law, in 1782, 
authorizing the manumission of slaves.* After serving his 
term in the House of Burgesses, Jefferson returned to his 
pradtice, and in the following year removed from "Shad- 
well," his early home, to a residence destined to be the 
famous " Monticello " — the Mecca of many a pilgrim since. 
On Jantiary i, 1772, he married Martha Skelton, widow of 
Bathurst Skelton and daughter of John Wayles, an influen- 
tial lawyer of Charles City. This lady was young and beau- 
tiful, and with a handsome patrimony added largely to Mr. 
Jefferson's happiness and fortune. In the spring of 1773, he 
was appointed by the House of Burgesses a member of the 
"Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry, for the dissemi- 
nation of intelligence between the Colonies," the plan of which 
he had himself aided in devising. In 1774 he published his 
defense of the Colonists in a paper entitled, " Summary View 
of the Rights of British America." This document, as Jeffer- 
son believed, procured the enrollment of his name on a Bill 
of Treason introduced into Parliament. But, it had a marked 
influence on the career of its author; it brought him before 

* See Walsh's Appeal, I., 392. 



242 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

the public in England and America as a bold advocate of con- 
stitutional freedom, and as a brilliant and thoughtful writer. 

On June i, 1775, Lord Dunmore, the then "Dissolving 
View" of royal authority in the Colony of Virginia, pre- 
sented to the House of Burgesses certain resolutions of the 
British Parliament, to which Jefferson, as chairman of the 
committee appointed for that purpose, replied in a ver>' able 
manner. This forcible response to Lord North's "concilia- 
tory proposition," Jefferson laid before Congress in Phila- 
delphia, a few days later. There it met with the warmest 
approval and placed Jefferson at once among the leaders in 
that important assemblage. When Congress proceeded to 
a(5t upon Lord North's proposition, Jefferson as author of the 
answer of Virginia, was requested by the committee of which 
he was a member, to prepare the reply. This he did in Res- 
olutions which were immediately adopted. 

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee offered in Congress 
the memorable resolution from which the Declaration of 
Independence was formulated. Being called suddenly home 
by the illness of his wife, he left to others the work which he 
had begun, returning however to his post, in time to append 
his name to the historic document. 

On the 9th of June, 1776, Jefferson was appointed chair- 
man of that committee to which was delegated the stupendous 
responsibility of drawing up a paper explaining the causes of 
the taking up of arms, and proposing a declaration of the 
independence of the Colonies. Jefferson was "unanimously 
pressed to undertake the draft ' ' by his associates in the com- 
mittee. He yielded to their wish, and gave in that great 
Instrument his name to freedom and to fame, bestowing 
upon his country a state paper which rivals in renown that 
" Keystone of English liberty," the Magna Charta of Runny- 
mede. The "Declaration of Independence" was so com- 
plete in every detail, that only two or three verbal alterations 
were made in it. It cannot be claimed, however, that this won- 
derful Chart of Liberty was the result of the inspiration of the 
hour. It was the produdl of days of questioning and nights 
of study ; it was the calm and sober declaration that God, 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 243 

who had bestowed the blessing of human life, had also given 
with that life certain inalienable rights which this people dared 
maintain ; it was the final protest of the chainless mind against 
oppression ; the high resolve of many men nobly portrayed 
by one. 

Having served a6lively and efficiently in Congress during 
the session of 1776, Thomas Jefferson returned to his home 
in Virginia. He was re-chosen a delegate to Congress, but 
declined the appointment, devoting himself during the re- 
maining years of the Revolutionary War to the service of 
his native state. He took his seat in the General Assembly 
of Virginia, Odtober, 1776, and commenced at once that vig- 
orous attempt at fundamental reform in the organic laws of 
his state which he felt that the new era demanded. He 
began by obtaining leave to bring in bills for cutting off 
entails, and for a general revision of the laws of the Com- 
monwealth. This was a great work of reconstrucflion, 
which had its advocates and opponents, but the reorgani- 
zation was in time complete. Jefferson in his autobiography 
says : 

' ' I considered four of these bills as forming a system by which every 
fibre would be eradicated of ancient or future aristocracy. * * * 

The repeal of the laws of entail would prevent the accumulation and 
perpetuation of wealth in select families. ****** 

The abolition of primogeniture, and equal partition of inheritances, 
removed the feudal and unnatural distinctions which made one member 
of every family rich and all the rest poor. ****** 

The restoration of the rights of conscience relieved the people from 
taxation for the support of a religion not theirs, for the Establishment was 
truly the religion of the rich." 

Jefferson continued to sit in the General Assembly 
during 1777 and 1778, and battled successfully for these 
radical changes, the importance of which had so long 
engaged his attention. On June i, 1779, he was eledled 
Governor of Virginia, and ably and honorably discharged 
that office. 

At this time Virginia was laid under very heavy contri- 
butions for the support of the campaign in Georgia and the 



244 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

Carolinas. She had nearly 10,000 troops in the Continental 
Army, and a steady drain had been made upon her resources 
for men, arms, horses, and provisions, so that she was nearly 
exhausted and utterly unprepared to resist the enemy upon 
her own soil. Her long extent of sea-coast, and noble rivers 
leading thereto, made her an easy prey to hostile fleets; there- 
fore, when the hour for her invasion came. General Leslie 
readily took possession of Hampton Roads and Portsmouth, 
and Arnold, with less than 2,000 men, quietly ascended 
James River. Arnold entered Richmond, which had recently 
become the capital of the state, on January 5, 1781. The 
city was evacuated, the public functionaries retiring before 
the foe to avoid certain capture — but Jefferson remained 
until the enemy had adlually possessed the lower part of 
the city, and until the last moment busied himself in 
attempts to protedl the public stores. Arnold ravaged the 
place, burned some buildings, then took to his boats and 
departed. 

Although the name of Benedidl Arnold is almost a syno- 
nym for ' ' traitor, ' ' we would pause for a moment here and 
recall the many noble deeds of valor, which he at an earlier 
day performed for his bleeding countr)-. He was born in 
Connedlicut and died in London, and the story of his cheq- 
uered life is the sad recital of that ever vain endeavor to 
avenge personal wrongs at the expense of personal honor. 
A distinguished officer in the patriot cause of the Rev- 
olution, wearing the honors of a Major-General, he allowed 
fancied slights on the part of Congress to turn the current of 
his fealty, and in an evil hour of wild temptation he became 
that fallen thing men call — a traitor. After betraying 
his country, he received a commission as Major-General 
in the British Army, and after the surrender of Corn- 
wallis, he went to England and was paid in gold the reckon- 
ing of his infamy. But the English Crown itself could 
not outweigh his sin, or hide the mark of Cain now 
stamped upon his brow ! Arnold was shunned by men of 
honor everywhere, and died far from his native land, in want, 
neglect, and fell despair. 'Tis told, that in his dying hour he 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 245 

clasped an old blue coat ; the remnant of a tattered flag with 
here and there a silver star ; and pressed to his failing heart a 
parchment which bore his commission as Colonel in the Con- 
tinental Ami}- ! That coat he had worn as he planted the 
American banner on Ticonderoga — it had been torn by a 
bullet in the fight at Quebec — and that commission, as it lay 
in his nerveless hands, seemed like a benediction to his pass- 
ing soul. Might it be, perchance, a passport to the silent 
pity of his countrymen ! 

After the abandonment of Richmond the legislators 
assembled in Charlottesville, where Cornwallis determined to 
attempt their capture. Tarleton was selecfled for this raid, 
but onl}^ succeeded in dispersing the Legislature and in 
driving Jefferson from his home at Monticello, from which 
place he escaped on horseback just in time to avoid capture. 
Jefferson's term of office had expired two days before Tarleton 
entered Charlottesville, and he had determined to decline a 
re-eledlion. In his autobiography he says that he came to 
this conclusion ' ' from a belief that under the pressure of the 
invasion under which we were then laboring, the public 
would have more confidence in a military chief." Of course 
this step gave rise to criticism, but it was silenced by a Resolu- 
tion passed " In the House of Delegates, Wednesday, 12th 
December, 1781, and agreed to by the Senate, December 15, 
1 781," viz.: 

"Resolved, That the siucere thanks of the General Assembly be given 
to our former Governor, Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, for his impartial, 
upright, and attentive administration whilst in office. The Assembly 
wish in the strongest manner to declare the high opinion which they 
entertain of Mr. Jefferson's ability, rectitude and integrity as Chief 
Magistrate of this Common-wealth," etc. 

It was during Mr. Jefferson's administration as Governor, 
that Virginia, in the interests of harmony among the sister 
states of the untried Republic, made an imperial gift to her 
country. She had already bestowed her patriotism, intelle(5t, 
blood, and treasure, and now she laid her princely domain 
of lands on the northwest side of the Ohio River at the foot 
of the Union. 



246 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

RESOIvUTlONvS. 

January 2'd, ijSi. 
For a Ckssion of the Lands on thk North West side of Ohio, 
TO THE United States. 

Copy sent the Governor, 

( Thomas Jejferson) 

on the i^th January, ijSi. 

IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES, 

Tuesday, the 2' nd January, lyS/. 

The general assembly of Virginia being well satisfied that the happi- 
ness, strength and safety of the United States, depend, under Providence, 
upon the ratification of the articles for a federal union between the United 
States, heretofore proposed by congress for the consideration of the said 
states, and preferring the good of their country to every object of smaller 
importance. Do Resolve, That this commonwealth will yield to the con- 
gress of the United States, for the benefit of the said United States, all 
right, title, and claim that the said commonwealth hath to the lands 
northwest of the river Ohio, upon the following conditions, to wit : That 
the territory so ceded shall be laid out and formed into states con- 
taining a suitable extent of territory, and shall not be less than one hun- 
dred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square, or as near thereto 
as circumstances will admit: That the states so formed shall be distinct 
republican states, and be admitted members of the federal union, having 
the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other 
states. 

That Virginia shall be allowed and fully reimbursed by the United 
States her adlual expenses in reducing the British posts of the Kaskaskies 
and St. Vincents, the expense of maintaining garrisons and supporting 
civil government there since the reduction of the said posts, and in general 
all the charge she has incurred on account of the country on the north 
west side of the Ohio river since the commencement of the present war. 

That the French and Canadian inhabitants and other settlers at the 
Kaskaskies, St. Vincents, and the neighbouring villages who have pro- 
fessed themselves citizens of Virginia, shall have their possessions and 
titles confirmed to them and shall be protected in the enjoyment of their 
rights and liberty, for which puipose troops shall be stationed there at the 
charge of the United States to protect them from the encroachments of the 
British forces at Detroit or elsewhere, unless the events of war shall render 
it impracticable. 

As colonel George Rogers Clarke planned and executed the secret 
expedition by which the British posts were reduced, and was promised if 
the enterprise succeeded a lilieral gratuity in lands in that country for the 
officers and soldiers who first marched thither with him^ that a quantity 



THOMAS JEFFERSOX. 247 

of land not exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand acres be allowed 
and granted to the said officers and soldiers, and the other officers and sol- 
diers that have been since incorporated into the said regiment ; to be laid 
off in one tract, the length of which not to exceed double the breadth, in 
such place on the north west side of the Ohio as the majority of the offi- 
cers shall choose, and to be afterwards divided among the said officers and 
soldiers in due proportion according to the laws of Virginia. 

That in case the quantity of good lands of the south-east side of the 
Ohio upon the waters of Cumberland river, and between the Green river 
and the Tennessee river, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia 
troops upon continental establishment, and upon their own state estab- 
lishment should (from the North Carolina line bearing in further upon 
the Cumberland lands than was expected) prove insufficient for their legal 
bounties, the deticiency shall be made up to the said troops in good lands, 
to l)e laid off between the rivers Scioti and little Miamis on the north-west 
side of the river Ohio, in siicli proportions as have been engaged to them 
by the laws of Virginia. 

That all the lauds within the territory so ceded to the United States, 
and not reserved for or appropriated to any of the herein before mentioned 
purposes, or disposed of in bounties to the officers and soldiers of the 
American army, shall be considered as a common fund for the use and 
benefit of such of the United American vStates, as have become or shall 
become members of the confederation or federal alliance of the said states 
(Virginia inclusive) according to their usual respective proportions in the 
general charge and expenditure, and shall be faithfully and bona fide dis- 
posed of for that purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever. 

And therefore, that all purchases and deeds from any Indian or In- 
dians, or from any Indian nation or nations, for any lands within any part 
of the said territory, which have been or shall be made for the use or ben- 
efit of any private person or persons whatsoever, and royal grants within 
the ceded territory inconsistent with the chartered rights, laws and cus- 
toms of Virginia, shall be deemed and declared absolutely void and of no 
effect, in the same manner as if the said territory' had still remained sub- 
ject to and part of the commonwealth of Virginia. 

That all the remaining territory of Virginia included between the 
Atlantic ocean and the south-east side of the river Ohio, and the Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina boundaries, shall be guaranteed 
to the Commonwealth of Virginia by the said United States. 

That the aljove cession of territory by Virginia to the United States 
shall be void and of none effe(5t, unless all the states in the American 
Union shall ratify the articles of confederation heretofore transmitted by 
congress for the consideration of the said states. 

Virginia having thus, for the sake of the general good proposed to 
cede a great extent of valuable territory of the continent, it is expected in 
return tliat every other state in the Union, under similar circumstances as 



248 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

to vacant territory, will make similar cessions of the same to the United 
States for the general emolument. 

Teste, 

John Beckley, C. H. D. 
1 78 1, January and. 

Agreed to by the Senate. 

Will. Drew, C. S. 

According to our highest authority, William Waller 
Heniiig, Thomas Jefferson was Governor of Virginia "until 
June, 1781, when he resigned, and on the twelfth day of 
June, 1 781, Thomas Nelson, Junior, Esquire, was eledled." 
In the interim, the executive fun(5lions of the government 
fell upon William Fleming, of Botetourt, and the General 
Assembly passed the following Resolution, indemnifying him 
for the administration of the same : 

IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 

Saturday, the 2jrd of June, ijSi. 

It appearing to the General Assembly tliat Colonel William Fleming, 
being the only acting member of council for some time before the appoint- 
ment of chief magistrate, did give orders for the calling out the militia, 
and also pursued such other measures as were essential to good govern- 
ment, and it is just and reasonable that he should be indemnified therein : 
Resolved, therefore, that the said William Fleming, Esqr. be indem- 
nified for his conduct as before mentioned, and the Assembly do approve 
of the same. 

Teste, 

John Becklev, C. H. D, 
1 781, June 23rd. 

Agreed to by the Senate. 

Will Drew, C. S. 

William Fleming was a Scotchman by birth, but emi- 
grated earl}' in life to Virginia, and was among the first 
settlers in that portion of Augusta County which was formed 
into Botetourt. In 1774 he raised a Regiment, which he 
gallantly commanded in the battle of Point Pleasant, where 
he was severely wounded. He had also served in the French 
and Indian War in 1755 and 1756. He was a member of 
the Council of Virginia in 1781, and represented the County 
of Botetourt in the Viiginia Convention of 1788, which rati- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 249 

fied the Federal Constitution. He was said to have been of 
noble extra dtion, had received a liberal education, and was 
of a bold and adventurous spirit. 

In the close of the year 1782, Mr. Jefferson was appointed 
Minister Plenipotentiary to join the representatives already 
in Europe, to negotiate the terms of a treaty of peace, 
but the treaty was concluded in Paris in 1783, before 
he was ready to sail. As chairman of the committee 
to which this matter had been referred in the Congress 
of 1783, he had the pleasure of reporting a definitive 
treaty of peace with England. On March 30, 1784, he was 
chosen to preside in Congress, and was chiefly instrumental 
in revising and perfe(5ling the Treasury Department of the 
government. On May 7, 1784, Thomas Jefferson was ap- 
pointed to join John Adams and Benjamin Franklin in Paris, 
and to negotiate treaties of commerce for the United States 
with foreign nations. On March 10, 1785, he was chosen by 
Congress to succeed Franklin as Minister to France, and being 
re-appointed in Odlober, 1787, he remained there until Odlo- 
ber, 1789, during which time he condu6led many important 
negotiations for his country. Immediately upon his return 
to America, Mr. Jefferson w^as appointed by President Wash- 
ington, Secretary of State, and filled the office with marked 
ability through the four years of Washington's first adminis- 
tration. The Cabinet meetings were often very stormy, and 
this period is marked by the origin of an acftive struggle 
between the two great political parties into which the Amer- 
icans had divided themselves. Alexander Hamilton was the 
leader of the Federalists, and Thomas Jefferson stood at the 
head of the Republicans. But, wishing at this time to retire 
for a season from public life, Jefferson resigned his office as 
Secretary of State, on December 31, 1793, and spent some 
three years in quiet at Monticello, devoting himself to per- 
sonal affairs, which, through attention to public matters, he 
had somewhat neglecfted. 

The close of the eighteenth century should not be recorded 
without allusion to one of the most affiidtive events which had 

XVII 



250 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

yet befallen America. On the 14th of December, 1799, 
GEORGE WASHINGTON died at Mount Vernon, Vir- 
ginia, aged 68 years, in favor with God and man. Said Mr. 
Adams in a letter to the Senate : 

" His example is now complete, and it will teach wisdom and virtue 
to magistrates, citizens, and men, not only in the present age, but in 
future generations as long as any history shall be read." 

In September, 1796, Washington had announced that he 
would not again be a candidate for the presidency, and there- 
upon the political parties of the country settled upon John 
Adams, of Massachusetts, as the candidate of the Federalists, 
and Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, as the standard bearer of 
the Republicans. Mr. Adams was elecfled President, and 
Mr. Jefferson, as was then the law, became the Vice-President 
of the United States. 

On March 4, 1797, Jefferson took the oath of office as pre- 
siding officer in the Senate, and delivered before that body a 
short address, in which he expressed in a masterly way his 
attachment to the laws and his desire to fulfill his duty. 
This he did amply, and when the time rolled around for 
another presidential election, he was again the candidate of 
his party for that high office. Aaron Burr was the Demo- 
cratic nominee for Vice-President. The Federalists sup- 
ported Adams and Pinckney. When the votes were opened, 
it was found that Jefferson and Burr were elected by an equal 
number of voices. This threw the election upon the House 
of Representatives, where, after thirty-five ineffectual ballots, 
a member from Maryland, authorized by Mr. Burr, withdrew 
that gentleman's name, and on the thirty-sixth ballot Mr. 
Jefferson was eledled President, and Colonel Burr became 
Vice-President. 

Jefferson delivered his inaugural address in Washington 
(to which City the Capital had been removed some months 
before), on March 4, 1801, in the presence of both Houses of 
Congress. 

A new social as well as political era had burst upon 
the country. Jefferson, the philosopher of democracy, who 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 251 

had proclaimed and extolled its principles, was now, as 
the political head of the country, about to apply them. A 
change in dress and manners appeared ; the old regime had 
suddenly passed away, and the stately dignity and ceremony 
of Washington's administration were supplanted by a republi- 
can simplicity. Jefferson himself headed the movement, and 
sent his message to Congress by a common messenger ; before 
his day, the President had in person made the communication, 
to which the Speaker, in behalf of Congress, had at once replied 
in a formal address. 

This term of Mr. Jefferson was distinguished by the 
purchase from France of the entire territory of Louisiana, in 
1803, for the sum of $15,000,000. 

In 1803, Commodore Preble vindicated American rights in 
the Mediterranean against the Emperor of Morocco. With an 
American fleet he bombarded the town and forts of Tripoli. 
The United States, it has been remarked, set the first example 
to the world, of obliging the Barbary powers to respe<5l its 
flag by the force of arms, instead of a disgraceful tribute. In 
1803, the frigate Philadelphia, belonging to Preble's squad- 
ron and commanded by Captain Bainbridge, struck on a 
rock in the harbor of Tripoli, and was taken by the 
Tripolitans ; her officers and crew, amounting to 300 men, 
were made prisoners. In 1804, Stephen Decatur, a lieuten- 
ant in the American nav}', with Preble's approval sailed from 
Syracuse in a small schooner, with seventy men, accompanied 
by the brig Syren, with the design of retaking or destroying 
the captured frigate Philadelphia, at Tripoli. He succeeded 
in setting fire to her, February 16, 1804, amidst a tremen- 
dous assault from two corsairs and the batteries on shore. 
Having accomplished his mission, he retired with his brave 
and daring companions. Tripoli was afterwards bombarded, 
in August, by the Americans, compelled to sue for peace, and 
the treaty for same was concluded June 3, 1805. 

The acquisition of Louisiana, the naval vi(5lories, and 
general prosperity of the country added no little to the 
popularity of the new order of things, and Jefferson was 
reeledled President, with George Clinton, of New York, as 



253 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

Vice-President, for the term commencing March 4, 1805. The 
Democratic majority was 148, out of 176 eledloral votes. 

In 1806 the President was called upon to arrest Aaron 
Burr for suspecfled treasonable operations in the Southwest. 
He was accused of prosecuting a scheme for the separa- 
tion of the Western States from the Union, was brought 
to trial in Richmond, Virginia, but no overt a(5l of treason 
could be proved, and the jur}^ rendered the verdidl, 
' ' Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty under the in- 
dictment by any evidence submitted to us." This trial, 
on account of the high position of the accused, became a 
matter of national concern. The people trembled to see a 
man who had been a distinguished soldier and statesman, and 
candidate for the Presidency (which high office he came 
within one vote of obtaining, and then voluntarily withdrew 
from the contest) ; a man who had been Vice-President of the 
United States for four years, and whose name had become 
identified with the honor of the nation — the people trembled 
to see this man arrested for high treason, and the country 
felt relieved when the great trial was at an end. 

About this time, trouble with Great Britain again threat- 
ened the tranquility of the United States. England was 
engaged in war with France, and was contending with a 
nation stimulated by the ambition of the Emperor Napoleon. 
She needed men for her navy, and she allowed her naval offi- 
cers to impress British seamen from merchant vessels, and 
force them to serv^e on men-of-war. She also claimed the 
right to impress her own subjects when found on ships of 
other nations. This led to the confli(5t between the Ameri- 
can frigate Chesapeake, sailing from Hampton Roads, and 
the British ship Eeopard, one of a squadron then at anchor 
within the limits of the United States, in which the Chesa- 
peake, unprepared for armed resistance to the arbitrary 
demand of the commander of the Leopard, was compelled to 
surrender. She remained under fire twenty or thirty min- 
utes, suffered much damage, lost three men killed and eight- 
een wounded, when Commodore Barron ordered his colors to 
be struck and handed over his ship to the enemy. The com- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 253 

mander of the Leopard sent an officer on board, who took 
possession of the Chesapeake, mustered her crew, and carry- 
ing off four of her men, abandoned the ship, which Commo- 
dore Barron took back to Hampton Roads. On receiving 
information of this outrage, Jefferson, by proclamation, inter- 
didled the harbors and waters of the United States to all 
armed British vessels, forbade intercourse with them, and 
made such other preparations as the occasion appeared to 
require. An armed vessel of the United States was dis- 
patched with instructions to the American minister at Lon- 
don to call on the British government for the satisfaction and 
security which the outrage demanded. 

Whilst now the war between England and France was agi- 
tating the Old World, America sought to preserve a proper 
neutrality. But England, all-powerful on the seas, tried to 
interrupt our trade with France or her dependencies, and Na- 
poleon issued orders to prevent our trade with England. In 
this trying situation, Jefferson thought that the United States 
might get the offensive decrees repealed, by stopping all its 
trade with the outside world. In pursuance of these views an 
Act was passed in December, 1807, forbidding the departure of 
vessels from American ports; it was known as "Jefferson's 
Embargo." This law gave great offence to the Federalists, but 
it was only intended as a temporary resort, and was repealed in 
February, 1809, by Congress, who substituted for it an Act 
of non-intercourse with France and England. 

At this interesting point in the history of his country, 
Jefferson retired from public life and terminated his political 
career. But a long period of varied and extended usefulness 
was yet in store for this distinguished son of Virginia. 
Though personally removed from the turmoil of public life, 
his interest in the affairs of his country was undiminished. 
From his home at Monticello, he still, through others, largely 
controlled the diredlion of events at the Capital, and the 
sovereignty of his intelledl was still as decisive as when he 
himself held office. In matters of internal concern he now 
busied himself, and diredled his talents and influence to the 
promotion of University education in his native state. He 



254 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

was largely instrumental in establishing the ' ' University of 
Virginia," near Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1817, and in 
1819 superintended the erection of the buildings himself. 
His connedlion with this institution of learning was a source 
of pleasure and of pride to him, and when he drew up 
the epitaph to be inscribed upon his tomb, he added to the 
words, " Author of the Declaration of Independence, and of 
the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom," these others : 
" and father of the University of Virginia." What a canopy 
to cover a single grave ! 

It should be here noted that Jefferson's first desire in 
connedlion with University education in Virginia, was to 
transform William and Mary College, his alma viater, into a 
state university. For this he struggled long and well, but 
insurmountable obje(5tions to this plan turned his views to 
the establishment of a separate institution. It is deeply in- 
teresting to observe how keenly alive were both Washington 
and Jefferson to the importance of higher education at home. 
Washington, in a letter to Governor Brooke, of Virginia, says : 

" It is with indescribable regret that I have seen the youth of the 
United States migrating to foreign countries, in order to acquire the 
higher branches of erudition and to obtain a knowledge of the sciences. 
Although it would be injustice to many to pronounce the certainty of 
their imbibing maxims not congenial with Republicanism, it must never- 
theless be admitted that a seriotis danger is encountered by sending abroad 
among other political systems those who have not well learned the value 
of their own. The time is, therefore, come when a plan of universal 
education oiight to be adopted in the United States. Not only do the 
exigencies of public and private life demand it, but, if it should ever be 
apprehended that prejudice would be entertained in one part of the Union 
against another, an efficacious remedy will be to assemble the )'outh of 
every part, under such circumstances as will, by the freedom of intercourse 
and collision of sentiment, give to their minds the direction of truth, 
philanthropy, and mutual conciliation." 

These views were substantiated by the generous endow- 
ment of a National University made in Washington's last Will 
and Testament. So, with eyes cast upon the future of this 
unfolding empire of freedom, both Washington and Jefferson 
hoped and planned for University education. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 355 

But the story of Jefferson's life is drawing to a close. A 
little past noon on July 4, 1826, his spirit passed from earth 
and left a great void in his home, and state, and countr3^ At 
almost the same hour, John Adams, the venerable and dis- 
tinguished son of Massachusetts, breathed his last, and this 
double blow was deeply felt through the length and breadth 
of the Union. 

Among Jefferson's valuable written contributions to his 
state maybe cited his "Notes on Virginia," his "Manual 
of Parliamentary Practice," and his manuscripts, under the 
title of ' ' The Writings of Thomas Jefferson ; being his Auto- 
biography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, 
and other writings." With his own hand he wrote what 
men should read upon his urn — but, as the years roll by, the 
scope of his life-work broadens. The forces which he helped to 
set in motion have in their onward progress, " unhasting, yet 
unresting," borne his name, with those of the patriot fathers, 
to a pinnacle of fame — to that high point of greatness won by 
a country which was their nursling once, but which, through 
their endeavor and the grace of God, stands one of the first 
powers of the Christian world. 



LXXII. 



THOMAS NELSON, JR. 

Governor. 

June 12, 1781, to November 30, 1781. 

It surely demanded the heart of a hero to assume charge 
of affairs in Virginia at the critical period when Thomas 
Nelson consented to become her Governor. The tide of war 
had rolled from North to South, and now was rolling back 
again to engulf, if possible, the revolutionary cause upon the 
soil of the Old Dominion. The British successes in the 
North had been followed by more decided vidlories in the 
South, and the conquest of the whole country seemed to be 
but a question of time to the elated English. Virginia, ever 
regarded as the centre of the Revolution, was now sele(5led 
as the most salient poiiit at which to bring the whole matter 
to a conclusion. So, by sea and land, the British began to 
concentrate their forces about her devoted territory. In the 
midst of all the discouragements which environed the Rev- 
olutionists, one gleam of light shone on the darkness — it 
flashed from the treaty of February 6, 1778, with France. 
The surrender in 1777 of Burgoyne's whole army to General 
Gates at Saratoga, had so advanced the cause of America in 
the sympathies of France, that her wavering policy then 
became fixed, and on the 6th February, lyouis XVI. entered 
into treaties of amity and commerce, and of alliance with the 
United States, on the footing of the most perfedl equality and 
reciprocity. This alliance under Providence was certainly 
one of the great causes of the final triumph at Yorktown, 
and of the permanent establishment of American independ- 
ence. And now, in 1781, when hemmed in on every side, 
the hope which sustained the patriots came mostly from their 



THOMAS NELSON, JR. 257 

French allies. The British were closing in upon Virginia, 
and desperate seemed the cause of liberty. It was in such 
an hour as this that Thomas Nelson assumed the rudder of 
the ship of state, to guide it through the gathering storm, not 
knowing what the end might be. 

Thomas Nelson, junior, was born in York County, Vir- 
ginia, December 26, 1738, and died in Hanover County, 
Virginia, January 4, 1789. But between " the coming " and 
"the going " he wrought a noble work, and left his footprints 
in the sands of time. He was the son of William Nelson, 
for many years President of the Colonial Council of Vir- 
ginia, and at one time Adling Governor of the Colony, and 
grandson of Thomas Nelson, the first of the name in Virginia. 
This last Thomas Nelson, came from Penriff, near the border 
of Scotland, and was called "Scotch Tom" on that account. 

Thomas Nelson, the subjedt of this sketch, was early 
placed by his father under the care of the Reverend Mr. 
Yates, of Gloucester County, Virginia (afterwards Presi- 
dent of William and Mary College), in order to prepare 
him for an English university. At the age of fourteen he 
was sent to England, and was for some time at a preparatory 
school of Dr. Newcome, at Hackney, and afterwards under 
the special care and tutorship of Dr. Porteus. He graduated 
with distindlion from Trinity College, Cambridge, and after 
an absence of seven years, he returned to Virginia. Being 
just twenty-one years of age, he was ele(5led to the House of 
Burgesses on his voyage home, as an evidence of the esteem 
in which his father was held, and of the hopes entertained of 
the son. 

In 1762 Thomas Nelson married Lucy Grymes, of Mid- 
dlesex County, Virginia, eldest daughter of Philip and Mary 
Randolph Grymes ; settled at Yorktown, and, being associated 
with his father as a merchant, was in affluent private circum- 
stances. At his father's death he came into the possession 
of a handsome patrimony. 

Thomas Nelson early became a decided partisan in the 
patriot cause, and rendered efficient services in the House of 



258 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Burgesses. He was a member of the revolutionary Conven- 
tions of 1774 and 1775, and was appointed by the Convention 
in July, 1775, Colonel of the Second Virginia Regiment, which 
post he resigned on being eledled to the Continental Congress 
in the same year. He was again called to administer in 
home affairs, and was a prominent member of the Virginia 
Convention of 1776, which met in May to frame a Constitution 
for her government. Here he offered the Resolution instrudl- 
ing the Virginia delegates in Congress to propose a Declara- 
tion of Independence. Having been elecfted one of these 
delegates, he had the satisfaction of seeing the hopes and 
wishes of his people embodied in a crystallized form, and with 
unfaltering faith in its declarations, set his seal to the historic 
instrument, July 4, 1776. In the following 3^ear he was com- 
pelled, through indisposition, to resign his seat in Congress. 
In August, 1777, on the approach of the British fleet 
within the capes of Virginia, Thomas Nelson was appointed 
Commander-in-Chief of the state forces, and soon after, in 
response to an appeal from Congress, he raised a troop of cav- 
alry which he led to Philadelphia, the point which had now 
become the theatre of war. During this campaign around 
Philadelphia, an illustration of the devoted heroism of the col- 
onists may be seen in the following incident related by Gen- 
eral Henry Lee, in his " Memoirs of the War in the Southern 
Department of the United States." In speaking of the battle 
of Germantown and the scene at Chew's house, he paj^s a 
handsome tribute to young Captain Matthew Smith, a son of 
John Smith and Mary Jaquelin, of " Shooter's Hill," Middle- 
sex County, Virginia, and a descendant of some of the earli- 
est and most distinguished settlers of that Colony. General 
Lee says : 

" The halt at Chew's house was taken after some deliberation, as the 
writer well recollects, being for that day in the suite of the Commander- 
in-Chief, with a troop of dragoons charged with duty near his person. 
Many junior officers, at the head of whom were Colonel Pickering and 
Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, iirged with zeal the propriety of passing 
the house. Brigadier Knox opposed the measure with earnestness, de- 
nouncing the idea of leaving an armed force in the rear, and being always 



THOMAS NELSON, JR. 259 

high in the General's confidence, his opinion prevailed. A flag of truce 
was instantly dispatched to summon the British Colonel, while appropriate 
bodies of troops were prepared to compel his submission. As had been 
suggested, the summons was disregarded by Musgrave, who persevered in 
his judicious defence, and Captain Smith, of the First Virginia Regiment, 
Deputy Adjutant-General, bearing the flag, fell with it waving in his 
hands. Thirsting after military fame, and devoted to his country, he 
obeyed with joy the perilous order, advanced through the deadly fire 
pouring from the house, presviming that the sanctitj' of his flag would 
at length be respected ; vain expectation ! He fell before his admiring 
comrades, a victim to this generous presumption." 

The danger from Sir William Howe's movements against 
the Colonists having been averted, Thomas Nelson's corps 
was disbanded, and he resumed his duties as a member of the 
General Assembly of Virginia. Here, he strongly opposed 
the proposition to sequestrate British property, on the ground 
that it would be an unjust retaliation of public wrongs on pri- 
vate individuals. In February, 1779, Nelson again took his 
seat in Congress, but was soon obliged by illness to resign. 
In May, 1779, he was suddenly called upon to organize the 
militia of his State, to repel an invasion of Virginia by the 
enemj^ and when early in June, 1780, Virginia resolved to 
borrow $2,000,000 to be deposited in the Continental Treasury 
by the middle of the month, Thomas NeIvSON, in that period 
of despondency and distrust, did, by his own personal efforts 
and on his own personal security, raise a large portion of the 
amount. This loan was in obedience to a call from Congress 
for contributions to provide for the French fleet and arma- 
ment. General Nelson, also, about this time, advanced 
money to pay two Virginia Regiments ordered to the South, 
whose arrears were not discharged. Thus were his ample 
fortune and credit freely and liberally expended for the public 
good. 

And now, at a period almost of despair, he took the helm 
of State, being chosen by the people, Governor of Virginia, 
June 12, i78i,and in person, with the militia he could sum- 
mon, opposed, with sleepless vigilance and wonderful military 
sagacity, the enemy invading his State. It was in no small 
degree owing to his exertions that the American Army was 



260 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

kept together during its stay in Virginia. Participating in 
the siege of Yorktown, as 'Commander of the Virginia militia, 
and having charge of the first battery which opened upon the 
enemy in the town, he pointed the first gun at his own 
dwelling, offering to the gunner a reward of five guineas for 
every shot fired into it. This house had been taken by Lord 
Cornwallis as his headquarters. 

During these days of trial and of peril, Governor Nelson 
had been compelled to assume dictatorial powers. Obeying 
the higher law of stern necessity, he did not hesitate to step 
beyond the written code, assuming here, as everywhere, any 
perilous consequence to himself, if thereby he could save his 
country. For these assumed powers, he was, however, fully 
indemnified by the following A(5t of Assembly : 

CHAPTER XXIV.* 

AN ACT To indemnify Thomas Nelson, Junior, Esquire, late Governor 
of this Commonwealth, and to legalize certain Acts of his administra- 
tion. 

I. Whereas upon an examination it appears, that previous to, and 
during the siege of York, Thomas Nelson, Junior, Esquire, late Governor 
of this Commonwealth, was compelled by the peciiliar circumstances of 
the State and Army, to perform many acts of government without the 
advice of the Council of State, for the purpose of procuring subsistence 
and other necessaries for the allied Army under the connnand of his 
Excellency, General Washington : ^ 

II. Be it enacted. That all such acts of government, evidently pro- 
ductive of general good and warranted by necessity, be judged and held 
of the same validity, and the like proceedings be had on them as if they 
had been executed by and with the advice of Council, and with all the 
formalities prescribed by law. 

III. And be it farther enacted, That the said Thomas Nelson, Junior, 
Esquire, be, and he hereby is, in the fullest manner, indenmified and 
exonerated from all penalties and damages which might have accrued to 
him from the same. 

It seemed a fitting recompense, that General Nelson 
should have the honor of being Governor of Virginia when 
Cornwallis surrendered, Ocftober 19, 1781 ; when upon Vir- 

♦Hening's Statutes at Large, Vol lo, page 47S, November, 17S1, 6th of Common- 
wealth of Virginia. 



THO.IfAS NELSON, JR. 261 

ginia soil the British gave up 7,247 regular troops, 840 
sailors, and 106 guns; when beneath Virginia skies the 
broken sword of the Commander of the English Army sealed 
the independence of America. Owing to failing health Gov- 
ernor Nelson was now compelled to retire from public duty ; 
not, however, until he had seen the morning break upon the 
cause he loved so well. He resigned the office of Governor 
in November, 1781, and passed the remnant of his days in 
the retirement of a country' home. 

General Nelson had entered upon the Revolutionary War 
a rich man ; he came out of it so poor, that after a few years 
had passed away, and he was laid in the old graveyard at 
York, without a headstone or slab to mark the spot, his prop- 
erty, save the old house in deserted York, and some broom- 
straw fields in Hanover, was put up at public sale to pay 
the debts contradled in his country's cause. Even the old 
family Bible with the births and baptisms of the family, 
with the little table on which it stood, was sold on that 
occasion. 

When the illustrious Virginia leaders of this period pass in 
review before us, we can dwell in admiration upon the lofty 
principles, the varied talents, the prudence and the courage 
which made ' ' The Father of his Country ' ' great ; our .souls 
can glow and burn when we remember the ser\dces of Patrick 
Henr}', Thomas Jefferson, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pen- 
dleton, George Wythe, George Mason, and Richard Henry 
Lee ; but the name of Thomas NeLson challenges a tenderer 
recolledlion. The tear will spring as we behold that grand 
old man, the embodiment of Christian and patriotic virtue, 
resting from his labors in the evening of life. We see him 
crowned, 'tis true, with the love and blessing of his emanci- 
pated country, but we behold him bent beneath the weary 
disease of asthma, contradled in the soldier's camp, having 
the gaunt figure of poverty as the companion of his fireside, 
and the hungry spe(5lre of debt as his con.stant .shadow. He 
died at his seat, " Offiey," a small wooden house in Hanover 
County, Virginia, January 4, 1789. A bronze statue, one of 



262 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

the six which adorn the Washington Monument at Richmond, 
Virginia, commemorates his services. 

" But his Fame, consigned to the keeping of that Time which, 
Happily, is not so much the Tomb of Virtue as its vShrine, 
Shall, in the years to come, fire modest Worth to noble Ends." 

A century has winged its flight since Thomas Nelson 
died, but in the presence of his history the inspiration of 
sacrifice is as fresh today as when renewed Virginia first 
wept above this buried Curtius of the Revolution. 



N 



PART II. 



History of the Executives of Virginia from the close of the 
Revolutionary War i?i ijSi , to i8g2 




HENRY LEE, 

Or, 
LIGHT HORSE HARRY." 



INTRODUCTION. 



Although the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, O(5lober ig, 
1781, had virtually terminated the struggle for the independ- 
ence of America, still the cessation of hostilities was not for- 
mally proclaimed by Congress until April 11, 1783. 

War with its desolating train had now given place to the 
tranquil reign of peace ; but, that war, with its history written 
in blood from Lexington to Yorktown, had had its world-wide 
uses. It had created a race of patriots, the story of whose 
valor would never die ; it had given birth to leaders who had 
proved self-government a possibility ; it had opened the way 
for freedom of thought and a(5lion, and had snapped the cords 
asunder that had bound America to a Throne. Last and 
best, it had shown that the foundation of the infant 'Republic, 
cemented with the crimson current of human life, was the 
ground-work of a structure destined to be more enduring than 
any fabric that could be reared by peaceful arbitration. 

Nearly a hundred years had looked down upon its growth 
when this " Union," tried in the throes of a tremendous civil 
convulsion, emerged from a ravaging war of four long years' 
duration, " One and inseparable." What could have accom- 
plished this, in its completeness, but the "mystic tie" of 
Lexington, Concord, Ticonderoga. Crown Point, Bunker 
Hill, Quebec, Boston and New York; of Trenton, Princeton, 
Brandywine. Germantown gnd Valley Forge; of »Savannah, 

XVHI 265 



266 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Charleston, Camden, Cowpens, Richmond and Yorktown — 
names, which like an amulet, had been hung around the in- 
fant breast by every patriot mother, in every state, for well- 
nigh a century ! 

Upon the cessation of hostilities with England, in April, 
1783, and the return of peace, it was found that the " Articles 
of Confederation ' ' between the states were not quite adequate 
to meet the new issues then arising. The necessity of vesting 
in a Congress, (differently organized from that under the Con- 
federation) powers competent to provide for the national wel- 
fare gave rise to permanent changes in the government. As 
a matter of interest it may be noted that, from the beginning 
of the War of the Revolution until the end, Virginia never 
ceased in her exertions to furnish her full quota of men and 
money in compliance with the requisitions of Congress, and 
when, in 1783, certain commercial restri(5lions were proposed, 
(made necessary by the acftion of England, ) Virginia passed 
her A61 conferring the power on Congress to adopt such reg- 
ulations, suspending its operation, however, until all the 
states in the Union should concur. She also passed "An Adl 
to provide certain and adequate funds for the payment of this 
State's quota of the debts contradled by the United States" 
(Odlober, 1783), by conferring such powers on Congress as 
would best tend to raise a revenue essential to the restoration 
of public credit and the discharge of the public debts. This 
Adl was also suspended until similar laws should be passed by 
every other state in the Union. The difficulties surrounding 
these and other questions gave rise to a change in the organ- 
ization of the government, and to the adoption of the present 
Constitution of the United States. 

The territorial limits of Virginia have varied many times 
since the hour when England's Queen traced with her royal 
hand the name the new-found country was to bear. 

The limits of Virginia under the Patent of Queen Eliza- 
beth to Sir Walter Ralegh, 1584, were vague and vast, but they 
assumed a more definite shape under her successor, James I., 
and the various changes in her boundaries have resulted from : 



INTRODUCTION. 267 

I. The ancient charters from the Crown of England. 

II. The grant of Maryland to Lord Baltimore, and the 
subsequent determinations of the British Court as to the 
extent of that grant. 

III. The grant of Pennsylvania to William Penn, and a com- 
padl between the General Assemblies of the Commonwealths 
of Virginia and Pennsylvania as to the extent of that grant. 

IV. The grant of Carolina and actual location of its north- 
ern boundary, by consent of both parties. 

V. The Treaty of Paris, of 1763. 

VI. The confirmation of the charters of the neighboring 
states by the Convention of Virginia at the time of constitut- 
ing her Commonwealth. 

VII. The cession made by Virginia to Congress of all 
the lands to which she had title on the north-west side of the 
Ohio. 

VIII. By an a(5l approved December 31, 1862, Congress 
provided for the admission of "West Virginia" into the 
Union, upon certain conditions, which conditions being com- 
plied with, the state government was formally inaugurated, 
June 20, 1863. 

By this Adl, an area of 23,000 square miles was sepa- 
rated from " The Old Dominion." 

In tracing thus the changes wrought by time in the outer 
limits of Virginia, it is likewise instrucflive to review some of 
the mutations withhi her boundaries. 

On February i6th, 1623, the " L,ist of the Livinge" was 
returned from the following places, and in this wise, viz.: 

At the Colledg Land. 

Att the Neak of Laud. 

Att West & vSherlow Hundred. 

Att Jordan's Jorney. 

Att Flourdieu Hundred. 

The rest at West and Sherlow Hundred Island. 

At Chaplain's Choise. 

.\tt James Citie and within the corporation thqreof. 

In the Maine. 

In James Island. 



208 



THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 



The Neck of Land. 

Over the River. 

At the Plautatiou over agaiust James Cittie. 

The Glase Howse. 

At Archur's Hoop. 

At Hogg Island. 

At Martin's Hundred. 

At Warwick Squrake. 

At the Indian Thickett. 

At Elizabeth Cittye. 

At Bricke Row. 

At Bass's Choice. 

More. at Elizabeth Cittie. 

At the Eastern Shore. 

1277. 
The End of the List of the Living.* 

And now, compare this list of 1277 inhabitants with the 
return from the Census Office for Virginia in 1890, showing 
her total population to be 1,655,980, in her one hundred 
flourishing counties, which are as follows : 



Accomac 

Albemarle 

Alexandria 

Alleghany 

Amelia 

Amherst 

Appomattox 

Augu,sta 

Bath 

Bedford 

Bland 

Botetourt 

Brunswick 

Buchanan 

Buckingham 

Campbell 

Caroline 

Carroll 

Charles City 

Charlotte 

Chesterfield 

Clarke 



Craig 

Culpeper 

Cumberland 

Dickenson 

Dinwiddle 

Elizabeth City 

Essex 

Fairfax 

Fauquier 

Floyd 

Fluvanna 

Franklin 

Frederick 

Giles 

Gloucester 

Goochland 

Grayson 

Greene 

Greenville 

Halifax 

Hanover 

Henrico 



Henry 

Highland 

Isle of Wight 

James City 

King and Queen 

King George 

King William 

Lancaster 

Lee 

Loudoun 

Louisa 

Lunenberg 

Madison 

Matthews 

Mecklenburg 

Middlesex 

Montgomery 

Nansemond 

Nelson 

New Kent 

Norfolk 

Northampton 



Northumberland 

Nottoway 

Orange 

Page 

Patrick 

Pittsylvania 

Powhatan 

Prince Edward 

Prince George 

Princess Anne 

Prince William 

Pulaski 

Rappahannock 

Richmond 

Roanoke 

Rockljridge 

Rockingham 

Russell 

vScott 

Shenandoah 

Smyth 

Southampton 



*See Colonial Records of Virginia, Vol. 3, No. 2. 



IKTRODUCTION. 36& 



Spotts^'lvania 


Sussex 


Warwick 


Wise 


Stafford 


Tazewell 


Washington 


Wythe 


Surrv 


Warreti 


Westmoreland 


York 



Though shorn of her vast territorial possessions, a greater 
future spreads before Virginia than when her borders were 
washed by the Atlantic on the east and the Pacific on the 
west. With her mild and healthful climate, her fertile soil, 
her splendid fisheries, her forest wealth ; with her mineral 
resources, her agricultural produdls, her commercial advan- 
tages; with her increasing, intelligent, industrious, and 
patriotic population, her greatness seems assured. 

With such a land and such a people, the problem of Vir- 
ginia's possibilities, suggested by Lord Bacon in 1621, 
"Who can tell?" is finding year by year, through all the 
changes and chances of Time, a broader and higher inter- 
pretation. 

" Noiselessly as the daylight comes when the night is done," 
is she now advancing from the ravages of war* and the 
blight of debt, to a fuller and more glorious life than she has 
ever known before. 

*i86i-i865. 



LXXIII. 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 

Governor. 
November 30, 1781, to November 29, 1784. 

Upon the resignation of Thomas Nelson, Junior, Novem- 
ber.30, 1 78 1, Benjamin Harrison was eledled Governor of Vir- 
ginia, and continued in this office until November 29, 1784. 
He was born in Berkeley, Charles City County, Virginia, about 
1740, his family having settled in the Colony as early as 1640. 

Mr. Harrison entered public life, in 1764, by becoming a 
member of the House of Burgesses, and .soon by his ability and 
social prominence became a leader in the stirring scenes in which 
he lived. He was a member of the First Continental Congress, 
of the Virginia Convention of 1775, and of the second General 
Congress, 1775. This body having adjourned, August i, the 
Virginia Convention on the nth of that month returned Mr. 
Harrison a third time as their representative, and on Septem- 
ber 13 he took his seat. Here he filled many positions of 
responsibility, struggling always for the best interests of his 
state and country. His term ofservice having expired, August 
II, 1776, he came back to Virginia, but not before he had 
enjoyed the satisfa(5lion of putting his name to the Declaration 
of Independence ; an acft which won for every ' ' Signer ' ' a 
patent of nobility far worthier than any that royal hand could 
give ; whose title was beyond the fictitious excellence of Star, 
or Garter, or Cross, or all the insignia of heraldry. 

In the autumn of 1776, Thomas Jefferson having resigned 
his seat in the Senate, Mr. Harrison was chosen to fill out 
his term, and after a brief absence of less than three months 
returned to Congress. He was immediately restored to his 
former place on all standing conmiittees. On May 22, 1777, 
Virginia returned him for the fourth time to Congress, where 

270 



BENJAMIN HARRISON. 271 

he, as before, adlively and successfully engaged in matters 
pertaining to the highest interests of the young Republic. 
About the close of this j-ear Mr. Harrison retired permanently 
from the halls of Congress and devoted himself to the promo- 
tion of his native State. He was soon sent from his county 
to the House of Burgesses, and eledled Speaker of that body, 
which office he held uninterruptedly until chosen Governor of 
Virginia, on November 30, 1781. Through the trying duties 
which accompanied this high office at the close of the Revolu- 
tion, he bore himself with dignity and ability, remaining the 
Chief Executive of the State until November 29, 1784, when 
he retired to private life. But his friends, unwilling to lose 
his valuable counsels, ele(5led him, in April, 1791, to the 
Legislature. A severe attack of gout seized him just at this 
time, and in a few daj-s his useful career was ended by death. 

Benjamin Harrison married Elizabeth, daughter of Col- 
onel William Bassett, of New Kent County, Va. 

Mr. Griggsly, in his book on the Convention of 1776, 
says, " Of all the ancient families in the Colony, that of Harri- 
son, if not the oldest, is one of the oldest," and adds, "That 
from the year 1645, to this date, a period of more than two cen- 
turies, the name has been distinguished for the patriotism, the 
intelligence, and the moral worth of those who have borne it." 

The third son of Benjamin Harrison and Elizabeth Bas- 
sett, viz., William Henry Harrison, was the ninth President 
of the United States, and the distinguished gentleman who 
now occupies that exalted position, and who bears the name 
of the old Virginia Governor, is the honored grandson of the 
hero of Tippecanoe. 

The following are copies of interesting state papers con- 
nedted with Governor Harrison's administration : 

By His Excellency, 

BENJAMIN HARRISON, ESQUIRE, 

Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. 

A PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas, the Honoral)lc the Continental Congress have published 

their proclamation, announcing the signature and ratification of the pre- 



272 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

Hniinar}- articles of peace between the several powers at war, and com- 
manding the citizens of these United States to cease from any farther 
hostilities against his Britannic Majesty and his subjects, both bj' sea and 
land : 

I have, therefore, thought fit, by and with the advice of the Council 
of State, to issue this, my proclamation, hereby enjoining all officers, l)Oth 
civil and military, together with all and every other person of even*- rank 
and denomination within this Commonwealth, to pay due obedience to 
the said proclamation of Congress. 

Given under mv hand, and the seal of the Commonwealth, at Rich- 
mond, in the Council Chamber, this twenty-first day of April, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty three, and seventh of 

the Commonwealth. 

Bknj.'^min Harrison. 
Attest, 

Arch. Bi^air, Clk. of the Council. 



October, 1783. 
AN ACT to authorize the Congress of the United States to adopt certain 
regulations respecting the British trade. 

I. Whereas, it appears by an order of the King of Great Britain in 
coimcil bearing date the second day of July last, made under the express 
authority of his Parliament, that the growth or produce of any of the 
United States of America, are prohibited from being carried to any of the 
British West India Islands, by any other than British subjects, in British 
built ships, owned by British subjects, and navigated according to the laws 
of that kingdom. 

II. And whereas this proceeding, though but a temporary expedient, 
exhibits a disposition in Great Britain to gain partial advantages injurious to 
the rights of free commerce, and is repugnant to the principles of recip- 
rocal interest and convenience, which are found by experience to form the 
only permanent foundation of friendly intercourse between states : Be it 
therefore enacted. That the United States in Congress assembled, shall be, 
and they are hereby authorized and empowered to prohibit the importa- 
tion of the growth or produce of the British West India Islands into these 
United States, in British vessels, or to adopt any other mode which may 
most effectually tend to counteract the designs of Great Britain, with 
respect to the American commerce, so long as the said restriction shall be 
continued on the part of (ireat Britain. Provided, that this Act shall not 
Ite in force until all the states in the Union shall have passed similar laws. 



LXXIV. 



. PATRICK HENRY. 

Crovenior. 
Deceiii])er. 1784, to December, 1786. 

Patrick Henry was ele<5led a second time, Governor of 
\Mrginia, in December, 1784, and continued in office until 
December, 1786. A sketch of his life having been already 
given in this work, we avail ourselves of this opportunity to 
relate some matters pertaining to his personal appearance 
and characfter not before mentioned, as well as to note some 
important events in his second administration. 

William Wirt, of Virginia, in his "Sketches of the Life 
and Chara(5ler of Patrick Henry," says: 

"He was nearly six feel high, spare, and what may be called raw- 
boned, with a slight stoop of the shoulders — his complexion was dark, 
sunburnt, and sallow, without any appearance of blood in his cheeks — his 
countenance grave, thoughtful, penetrating, and strongly marked with the 
lineaments of deep reflection — the earnestness of his manner, united with 
an habitual contraction or knitting of his brows, and those lines of thought 
with which his face was profusely furrowed, gave to his countenance at 
some times, the appearance of severity — yet such was the power which he 
had over its expression, that he could shake off from it in an instant, all 
the sternness of winter, and robe it in the brightest smiles of spring. His 
forehead was high and straight ; yet forming a sufficient angle with the 
lower part of his face — his nose somewhat of the Roman stamp, though 
like that which we see in the bust of Cicero, it was rather long, than 
remarkable for its Ctesarean form — of the colour of his eyes, the accounts 
are almost as various as those which we have of the colour of the chame- 
leon — they are said to have been l)lue, grey, what Lavater calls green, 
hazel, brown, and black — the fact seems to have been that they were of a 
bluish grey, not large ; and being deeply fixed in his head, overhung by 
tlark, long, and full cyc-brows, and farther shaded by lashes that were 
both long and black, their apparent colour was as variable as the lights in 
which they were seen — but all concur in saying that they were uncjues- 



274 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

tionably the finest feature in his face, ])rilliant, full of spirit, and capable 
of the most rapidly shifting and powerful expression, at one time piercing 
and terrible as those of Mars, and then again soft and tender as those of 
Pity herself — his cheeks were hollow, his chin long, but well formed, 
and rounded at the end, so as to form a proper counterpart to the upper 
pari; of his face. ' I find it difficult,' says the correspondent from whom 
I have borrowed this portrait, ' to describe his mouth in which there 
was nothing remarkable, except when about to express a modest dis- 
sent from some opinion on which he was commenting — he then had a 
sort of half-smile, in which the zvant of conviction was perhaps 
more strongly expressed, than the satirical emotion, which probably 
prompted it. His manner and address to the court and jury might be 
deemed the excess of humility, diffidence, and modesty. If, as rarel}- 
happened, he had occasion to answer any remark from the bench, it was 
impossible for Meekness herself to assume a manner less presumptuous 
— but in the smile of w^hich I have been speaking, you might anticipate 
the want of conviction, expressed in his answer, at the moment that he 
submitted to the superior zvisdovi of the court, with a grace that would 
have done honour to Westminster hall. In his reply to counsel, his 
remarks on the evidence, and on the conduct of the parties, he preserved 
the same distinguished deference and politeness, still accompanied how- 
ever by the never-failing index of this sceptical smile, where the occa- 
sion prompted.' In short, his features were manlj', bold, and well 
proportioned, full of intelligence, and adapting themselves intuitively 
to every sentiment of his mind, and every feeling of his heart. 
His voice was not remarkable for its sweetness; but it was firm, of 
full volume, and rather melodious than otherwise. Its chaniis con- 
sisted in the mellowness and fulness of its note, the ease and variety of 
its inflections, the distinctness of its articulation, the fine effect of its 
emphasis, the felicity with which it attuned itself to every emotion, and 
the vast compass which enabled it to range through the whole empire of 
human passion, from the deep and tragic half- whisper of horror to the 
wildest exclamation of overwhelming rage. In mild persuasion, it was 
as soft and gentle as the zephyr of spring ; while in rousing his country- 
men to arms, the winter storm that roars along the troubled Baltic, was 
not more awfully sublime. It was at all times perfectly under his com- 
mand ; or rather, indeed, it seemed to command itself, and to modulate 
its notes, most happily to the sentiment he was uttering. It never ex- 
ceeded, or fell short of the occasion. There was none of that long contin- 
ued and deafening vociferation, which always takes place when an ardent 
speaker has lost possession of himself — no monotonous clanguor, no dis- 
cordant shriek. Without being strained, it had that body and enuncia- 
tion which filled the most distant ear, without distressing those which 
were nearest him ; hence it never became cracked or hoarse, even in his 
longest speeches, but retained to the last all its clearness and fulness of 



PATRICK HENRY. 275 

intonation, all the delicacy of its inflection, all the charms of its emphasis 
and enchanting variety of its cadence. 

"His delivery was perfectly natural and well timed. It has indeed 
been said, that on his iirst rising, there was a species of sub-cantiis very 
observal)le by a stranger, and rather disagreeable to him ; but that in a 
verv few moments even this itself l)ccame agreeable, and seemed, in- 
deed, indispensable to the full efl"ect of his peculiar diction and concep- 
tions. In point of time, he was very happy; there was no slow and 
heavy dragging, no quaint and measured drawling, with equidistant pace, 
no stumbling and floundering among the fractured members of deranged 
and broken periods, no undigniiied hurry and trepidation, no recalling and 
recasting of sentences as he went along, no retraction of one word and 
substitution of another not better, and none of those affected bursts of 
almost inarticulate impetuosity, which betray the rhetorician rather than 
display the orator. On the contrary, ever self-collected, deliberate, and 
dignified, he seemed to have looked through the whole period before he 
commenced its delivery ; and hence his delivery was smooth, and firm, 
and well accented; slow enough to take along with him the dullest hearer, 
and yet so commanding, that the quick had neither the power nor the dis- 
position to get the start of him. Thus he gave to every thought its full 
and appropriate force ; and to every image all its radiance and beauty. 

No speaker ever understood better than Mr. Henry the true use and 
power of the pause; and no one ever practiced it witli happier effect. 
His pauses were never resorted to for the purpose of investing an insignifi- 
cant thought with false importance ; much less were they ever resorted to 
as a. finesse, to gain time for thinking. The hearer was never disposed to 
ask, ' why that pause? ' nor to measure its duration by a reference to his 
watch. On the contrary, it always came, at the very moment when he 
would himself have wished it, in order to weigh the striking and import- 
ant thought which had just been uttered ; and the interval was always 
filled by the speaker with a matchless energy of look, which drove the 
thought home through the mind and through the heart. 

His gesture, and this varying play of his features and voice, were so 
excellent, so exqviisite, that many have referred his power as an orator prin- 
cipally to that cause ; yet this was all his own, and his gesture, particularly, 
of so peculiar a cast, that it is said it would have become no other man. I 
do not learn that it was very abundant ; for there was no trash about it ; none 
of those false motions to which i;ndisciplined speakers are so generally 
addicted; no chopping nor sawing of the air; no thumping of the bar to 
express an earnestness, which was much more powerfully, as well as more 
elegantly, expressed by his eye and his countenance. Whenever he 
moved his arm, or his hand, or even his finger, or changed the position of 
his body, it was always to some purjjose ; nothing was inefficient ; every 
thing told; every gesture, every attitude, every look, was emphatic; all 
was animation, energy, and dignity. Its great advantage consisted in this 



27« ■/■///■■ <,<)1'/-:A'.\'(>A'S (>/■ \ Ik'CIMA. 

thill various, holtl, iiixl oi ij^iiial as it was, it iic\'ci apjjcarcd to l)e sliulietl 
affcdled, or theatrical, or 'to overstep,' in the siiiallcst degree, 'the mod- 
esty of nature ' ; for he never made a gesture, or assumed an attitude, 
which did not seem imperiously demanded by the occasion. Every look, 
every motion, every pause, every start, was completely fdled and dilated 
by the thought which he was uttering, and seemed indeed to form a jiart 
of the thought itself. His action, however strong, was never vehement. 
He was never seen rushing forward, shoulder foremost, fury in his coun- 
tenance, and fren/.y in his voice, as if to overturn the bar, and charge his 
audience sword in hand. His judgment was too manly and too solid, 
and his taste too true, to ])ermit him to indulge in any such extravagance. 
His good sense and his self- possession never deserted him. In the loudest 
storm of declamation, in the fiercest blaze of passion, there was a dignity 
and temperance which gave it seeming. He had the rare faculty of im- 
parting to his hearers all the excess of his own feelings, and all the vio- 
lence and tumult of his emotions, all the dauntless sj)irit of his resoluti<»n, 
and all the energy of his soul, without any sacrifice of his own ])crsonal 
dignity, an<l without treating his hearers otherwise Ihrni as rational beings. 
He was not the orator of a day ; and therefore sought not to ))uild his fame 
on the sandy basis of a false taste, fostered, if not created, by himself. 
He spoke for immortality; and therefore raised the i)illars of his glory on 
the only solid foundation, the rock of nature." 

Ill c<)nne(5lioii with the religious charadler of Patrick 
Ileiirx-, the following extratft is taken from a letter written 
by the Rev. Mr. Dresser, who had charge of Antrim Parish, 
Halifax Counts', X'irginia, from 1.S2.S to 1S38. Mr. Dresser 
sa>'s : 

"He ever had, I am informed, a very great abhorrence of infidelity, 
and aiHually wrote an answer to ' Paine's Age of Reason,' but ilestroyed 
it before his death. His widow has informed me that he received the 
communion as often as an o])portunity was offere<l, and on such occa- 
sions always fasted until after he had communicated, and s])ent the da}' in 
the greatest retirement. 'I'hishedid both while Covcrnor and aftcrwanl." 

These fac^s are corrol)orate(l l)y this extract from Mr. 
Henry's will, \i/.. : 

"I have now disjfoscd of .'ill my i)ropc'rty to my family; there is one 
thing more 1 wish 1 could give Ihem, and that is the Christian religion. 
If they have that and I had not given them one shilling, they would be 
rich; and if they have not thai and 1 had given llicin all this world, they 
would be poor." 



PATRICK HENRY. 277 

Mr. W. W. Henry, the accomplished descendant of this 
great orator, says in liis Life of Patrick Henry: 

"The account of I'atrick Henry's death, written l)y his j^nindson, 
Patrick Henry Fontaine, not only shows the Christian character of the 
man, l)ut is a beautiful i)iecc of writinj^. The doctor had j^ivcn him a last 
dose of medicine, tellinj^ him at the same time, 'You can live only a very 
short time without it, and it may possibly relieve you.' Then I'atrick 
Henry said, 'Excuse me, doctor, for a few minutes!' and drawing over 
his eyes a silken cap which he usually wore, and still holding the vial in 
his hand, he prajed in clear words a .simple, childlike prayer for his 
family, for his country, and for his own soul, then in the presence of 
death. Afterwards in ])erfcct calmness, he swallowed the medicine. * 
■;;• -A- * -x- Dr. Caljell went out upon the lawn, but soon came back to his 
patient, whom he found '" * speaking words of love and peace to his 
family, who were weeping around his chair. Among other things he tohl 
them that he was thankful for that goodness of God which, having l)lesscd 
him all his life, was then permitting him to die without any pain. Finally, 
fixing his eyes with much tenderness on his dear friend. Dr. Cabell, with 
whom he had formerly held many arguments respecting the Christian 
religion, he asked the doctor to observe how great a reality and benefit 
that religion was to a man about to die. And after Patrick Henry had 
spoken to his beloved j)hysician those few words in praise of something 
which having never failed him in all his life before, did not then fail him 
in his very last need of it, he contiimcd to breathe very softly for some 
moments, after which they who were looking upon him saw that his life 
had departed." 

The period embraced by the second term of Patrick 
Henry as Governor of Virginia, is very interesting. Among 
the Adls of 1785 and 1786, will be found, pas.sed into laws, the 
most important bills, reported to the Legislature in 1779 by 
the committee of revi.sers appointed by the A<51 of 1776. At 
the session of 1786, an Adl passed appointing a committee to 
take into consideration such of the bills contained in the 
revisal, prepared and reported by the committee appointed 
for that purpose in the year 1776, as had not been ena(5led 
into laws. This was superseded by the Acl of 1789, con- 
cerning a new edition of the laws, which was the foundation 
of the revisal in 1792. The preamble to the Acl for the revis- 
ion of the laws, October, 1776, reads thus: 

"Whereas on the late change which hath of necessity been introduced 
into the form of government in this country, it is become also necessary 



378 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

to make corresponding changes in the laws heretofore in force, man}' of 
which are inapplicable to the powers of government as now organized, 
others are founded on principles heterogeneous to the Republican spirit, 
others which, long before such change, had been oppressive to the people, 
could yet never be repealed while the regal power continued, and others, 
having taken their origin while our ancestors remained in Britain, are not 
so well adapted to our present circimi stances of time and place ; and it is 
also necessary to introduce certain other laws, which, though proved by 
the experience of other states to be friendly to liberty and the rights of 
mankind, we have not heretofore been permitted to adopt; and whereas a 
work of such magnitude, labor, and difficulty may not be effected during 
the short and busy term of a session of Assembly : Be it therefore enacted 
by the General Assembly of the Commomvealth of Virginia, and it is 
hereby enafled by the authority of the same. That a committee, to consist 
of five persons, shall be appointed by joint ballot of both lioitses (three of 
whom to be a quorum), who shall have full power and authority to revise, 
alter, amend, repeal, or introduce all or any of the said laws, to form the 
same into bills and report them to the next meeting of the General 
Assembh-." 

The committee appointed was Thomas Jefferson, Ed- 
mund Pendleton, George W^'the, George Mason, and 
Thomas lyiidwell Lee. 

In the House of Delegates, the i8th June, 1779, Benja- 
min Harrison, Speaker, laid before the House a letter from 
Thomas Jefferson, Governor of the Commonwealth, and 
George Wythe, presenting this accomplished icork. 

Such a permanent and radical alteration of the Laws of 
Virginia will be ever associated with the statesmen above men- 
tioned, and the farther development of this plan will be hap- 
pily connecfted with the second term of Patrick Henry as 
Governor of the state. The importance and significance of 
these changes are the best indications of the progress of a 
free and aspiring people. 

And so we bring to an end our brief and imperfecfl sketch 
of Patrick Henry — a man whose high destiny it was to fire 
the hearts of an oppressed people to a mighty revolution ; 
who has left us mainly the ends for which he strove and not 
the means by which he worked ; whose winged words, chain- 
ing convidlion in their flight, and yet refusing to be penned, 
are known only by the trail of glory they have left behind. 



LXXV. 



EDMUND RANDOLPH. 

Governor'. 
December i, 1786, to December, 1788. 

Edmund Randolph was born in Williamsburg, the 
Capital of the Colony of Virginia, August 10, 1753. It was 
in this memorable year that the people of Virginia were 
alarmed by the report that the French, aided by the Indians, 
were eredting a long line of military posts on the Ohio ; this 
led George Washington to offer to Governor Dinwiddle his 
services, to explore the wild and trackless forests west of the 
" Blue Mountains," and to convey to the French command- 
ant on this frontier, a letter of inquiry from the Governor of 
Virginia. History records the perilous nature of this under- 
taking and the courageous manner in which it was executed. 
Thus, the year in which Edmund Randolph was born, was 
signalized as a very important era in the life of his native 
Colony, where his family had already borne a distinguished 
part. His father was John Randolph, and his mother, Ariana, 
daughter of Edmund Jenings. John Randolph was Attorney- 
General of the Colony, and was the son of Sir John Randolph, 
who had filled the same office and had received the honor of 
Knighthood for honorable services to the Crown, being spoken 
of as a most eminent man in his profession, and one of high 
character. 

Sir John Randolph had two sons, John and Peyton, and 
they in succession were Attorneys-General of Virginia. At 
the breaking out of the war, John went to England, and was 
succeeded in his position by his son Edmund ; but, bitterly 
repenting his choice, he died abroad of a broken heart, and 
directed his remains to be brought back to Virginia. They 
were interred in the College chapel. 

279 



380 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Kclniund Randolph now began a career of prominence, and 
figured largely for many years as the defender of his counlr)^ 
in the Councils of his state and of the nation, and was the 
zealous supporter of the Church against all which he believed 
to be assaults upon her rights. He had been adopted by his 
uncle, Peyton Randolph, and had espoused his patriotic views 
with regard to the independence of America. In 1775 he 
served on the staff of Washington, was a delegate to the \^ir- 
ginia Convention in May, 1776, and from 1779 to 1783 he 
was a member of the Continental Congress. On the 29th 
August, 1776, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert 
Carter Nicholas, Treasurer, and Speaker of the House of 
Burgesses of Virginia. 

Being a member of the Virginia delegation to " The 
Constitutional Convention," which met in Philadelphia, May 
25, 1787, Edmund Randolph introduced, on behalf of his 
delegation, a .series of propositions, fifteen in number, em- 
l)odying a new scheme of central government, known in 
histor\- as the " Virginia plan." This plan, discussed for 
two weeks in committee of the whole, was so modified, 
amended, and changed, that it could only be called the fou7i- 
dation of what was finally accepted and signed b}- the delegates 
in due form. The authorship of "The Constitution" as 
then laid down, was clearly the produ(5l of many minds, and 
the source of some of its most vital phrases will never be given 
to posterity. We only know that the end attained was after 
long, laborious, anxious discussion and most sagacious com- 
promise. Secflional differences of opinion were reconciled, 
and a distin(5l plan of constitutional union finally arranged. 
Washington presided at this Convention, and by his inflexible 
course did much to keep the assembly together — a conven- 
tion whose almost continuous session of four months had 
more than once threatened to break up in disorder. 

It is to be regretted that so little can be known of the 
Constitutional Convention of Philadelphia ; but the injunc- 
tion of secrecy under which its deliberations were held, was 
never removed. The official Journal deposited by Washing- 
ton in the public archives, and Madison's Notes (all given 



EDMUND RANDOLPH. 281 

to the public at a later day) , are the only extended testimony 
to throw light on this intensely interesting period — a time 
when Washington himself declared that our political affairs 
were "suspended b}^ a thread." In that dread crisis the 
past furnished no light to guide the statesman of this august 
meeting ; the present was full of doubt and despair, and the 
destiny of the American lyiberty hung trembling in the 
balance. But, in this jun(5lure, the majestic reason of George 
Washington triumphed. "It is too probable," he said, 
" that no plan we propose will be adopted. Perhaps another 
dreadful conflicft is to be sustained. If, to please the people, 
we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward 
defend our work ? lyCt us raise a standard to which the wise 
and honest can repair; the event is in the hands of God." 
If, in this memorable speech, Washington counseled imme- 
diate acftion, and thereby cemented the opposing sentiments 
of the Convention by one decisive and imperishable step ; if 
he now laid the foundation of honesty and purity in Consti- 
tutional government, we, the heirs of this rich legacy, are 
indebted no less to another Virginian for making the Consti- 
tution, pradlically, all that it has been, is, and yet may be. 
To John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States from 
1 80 1 to 1835, do we turn with gratitude for lifting these 
Resolutions from the mist and cloud of Doubt, to be the 
radiant source of light, and life, and happiness to millions of 
enraptured freemen. When as yet the Constitution was a 
doubtful experiment, Judge Marshall, by his clear, unanswer- 
able logic, laid it before an eager world as a wonderful 
combination of Liberty and Law, and by his pradlical con- 
strucftion of its beneficent provisions, he established it in the 
hearts and minds of his fellow-citizens as a wise and never- 
to-be-abandoned system of free government. 

At the clo.se of the momentous deliberations of the Consti- 
tutional Convention, the plan adopted was disapproved by 
Edmund Randolph, but, in June, 1788, when it was sub- 
mitted to the Virginia Convention in Richmond for ratifica- 
tion, he pronounced decidedly for it. 

Of the deputies from Virginia who .signed the Constitution 

XIX 



282 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

in Philadelphia, September 17, 1787, were George Washing- 
ton, John Blair, James Madison, Jr. Those of the Virginia 
delegation who did not then sign it, were Edmund Randolph, 
George Mason, George Wythe, James McClurg. But the 
Constitution was finally accepted by Virginia through her 
Convention held at Richmond, and ratified June 25, 1788, by 
a vote of 8g to 79. 

Upon the resignation of Patrick Henry as Governor of 
Virginia, Edmund Randolph was eledled to succeed him, 
December i, 1786, and remained in this important office 
until December, 1788. A glance at the Adts of Assembly 
during this period will show the varied subjedls which 
claimed the attention of his administration, developing 
through the laws enadled the gradual and intelligent prog- 
ress of a people in the difficult experiment of self-govern- 
ment. 

In 1784 Edmund Randolph had been appointed Deputy- 
Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free, and 
Accepted Masons of Virginia, and in 1786 he was ele(5led 
Grand Master of the same body, when he named the Hon- 
orable John Marshall as his Deputy. His name is masonically 
perpetuated in the Richmond Randolph I^odge, No. 19, 
chartered Ocftober 19, 1787. It is also a matter of interest to 
note, that Edmund Randolph, on the 28th April, 1788, at the 
earnest desire of the members, named "our illustrious and 
well-beloved brother, George Washington, Esquire, late 
General and Commander-in-Chief of the forces of the United 
States of America," as Master of the "Alexandria Lodge, 
No. 22." After the death of Washington the name was 
changed to the " Alexandria Washington Lodge, No. 22." 

In 1790 Edmund Randolph was appointed by Washing- 
ton the first Attorney- General of the United States, a position 
which, as a man of elegant manners and an accomplished 
lawyer, he was well fitted to adorn. On August 2, 1794, he 
succeeded Jefferson as Secretary of State, which office he 
held until the 19th August, 1795, when he withdrew to private 
life and resumed the practice of law. The fa(5t that he 
retired from the Cabinet of Washington was made the occa- 



EDMUND RANDOLPH. 283 

sion of much comment by his political antagonists. He 
published a "Vindication" of his course, which ably and 
effedlually silenced the calumnies of his enemies. 

Edmund Randolph spent the latter part of his life chiefly 
with his daughter, Mrs. Bennett Taylor, of Frederick County, 
and lies buried by her side in the old graveyard of that 
parish. Bishop Meade, of Virginia, says of the latter days 
of Mr. Randolph's life, viz. : 

" I saw him during this period, and conversed with him on religious 
subjecfls, in which he seemed to take a deep interest. McKuight's ' Com- 
mentary on the Epistles ' came out about this time, and Mr. Randolph, 
who had probably never been much conversant with such books, became 
passionately fond of it, and sometimes talked of preparing and publishing 
some selections from it, or an abridgment of it, that others might enjoy 
the pleasure he had experienced in some of its elucidations of Scripture, 
which seemed to him, to iise his own language, ' like a new revelation on 
some dark points. ' ' ' 

Mr. Randolph died at "Carter Hall," the seat of Colonel 
Nathaniel Burwell, of Frederick County, on September 12, 
18 13, bringing to a close a life of honorable distincflion and 
wide-spread usefulness. 



LXXVI. 

BEVERLEY RANDOLPH. 

Governor. 
December i, 1788, to December i, 1791. 

Beveri.e;y Randolph, son of Colonel Peter and Lucy 
Boiling Randolph, was born at " Cliatsworth," Henrico 
County, Virginia, in 1754, and was third in descent from 
William Randolph of ' ' Turkey Island. ' ' He was educated at 
William and Mary College, where he graduated in 1771, and 
was, during the Revolution, a patriotic supporter of colonial 
independence. He was a member of the General Assembly, 
and succeeded Edmund Randolph as Governor of Virginia 
December i, 1788. In this position he served until December 
I, 1 79 1. Many important Adls were passed during his 
administration ; among others may be noted : 

" An Adl concerning a new edition of the Laws of this 
Commonwealth, reforming certain rules of legal construdlion, 
and providing for the due publication of the Laws and Reso- 
lutions of each session." Passed November i8th, 1789. 

' ' An A(5t to amend an A(5t entitled ' An A(5l establishing 
Distridl Courts, and for regulating the General Court." 
Passed December 17, 1789. 

"An Ad: concerning the eredlion of the distridl of Ken- 
tucky into an independent state." Passed December 18, 1789. 

' ' An A(ft repealing a part of the Ordinance by which 
certain English statutes were declared to be in force within 
this Commonwealth." Passed November 25, 1789. 

' ' An Adl for amending the A(5ts concerning the Court of 
Appeals." Passed November 19, 1789. 

"An Adl to fix the time of holding eledlions for repre- 
sentatives to Congress." Passed December i, 1789. 

These, and man}- other measures pertaining to the internal 



BEVERLEY RANDOLPH. 285 

growth and welfare of the Commonwealth, were evidences of 
the gradual evolution in progress, for "the laws of a country 
are necessarily connecfted with everything belonging to the 
people of it." 

Among the interesting Acfls of Virginia during Beverley 
Randolph's administration, was the cession of ten miles 
square forthe permanent seat of the general government. After 
the organization of the government under the Constitution, 
March 4, 1789, warm discussions took place in Congress on 
the location of the Capital, which were finally settled by the pas- 
sage, June 28, 1790, of an Adl containing the following clause : 

" That a districft of territory on the river Potomac, at 
some place between the mouths of the Eastern branch and 
the Connogacheague be, and the same is hereby accepted for 
the permanent seat of the government of the United States." 
The same Adl provided that Congress should hold its ses- 
sions at Philadelphia until the first Monday in November, 
1800, when the government should remove to the distridl 
selecfted on the Potomac. The area fixed upon for the 
distri(5t was a square of 10 miles or 100 square jiiiles. It 
embraced 64 square miles of Maryland, constituting the 
County of Washington, which was ceded by that State to the 
United States in 1788, and 36 square miles of Virginia, con- 
stituting the County of Alexandria, ceded in 1789, as follows : 

AN ACT for the cession of ten miles square, or any lesser quantit}- of 
territory- within this state, to the United States, in Congress assembled, 
for the permanent seat of the general government. 
(Passed the 3d of December, 1789.) 
Sect. I. Whereas the equal and common benefits resulting from the 
administration of the general government will be best diffused, and its 
operations Ijecome more prompt and certain by establishing such a situa- 
tion for the seat of the said government, as will be most central and 
convenient to the citizens of the United States at large, having regard as 
well to population, extent of territory, and a free navigation to the Atlantic 
Ocean, through the Chesapeake Bay, as to the most direct and ready com- 
munication with our fellow-citizens in the western frontier : And 
7clicreas it appears to this Assembly, that a situation combining all the 
considerations and advantages before recited nuiy be had on the banks of 
the River Patowmack, above tide-water, in a country rich and fertile in soil, 



286 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

healthy and salubrious in climate, and abounding in all the necessaries 
and conveniences of life, where, in a location of ten miles square, if the 
wisdom of Congress shall so direct, the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, 
and Virginia, may participate in such location. 

Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That a tract of 
country, not exceeding ten miles square, or any lesser quantity, to be 
located within the limits of this State, and in any part thereof as Congress 
may b}^ law direct, shall be, and the same is, hereby forever ceded and 
relinquished to the Congress and Government of the United States, in full 
and absolute right, and exclusive jurisdiction as well of soil as of persons 
residing or to reside thereon, pursuant to the tenor and effect of the eighth 
section of the first Article of the Constitution of government of the United 
States. 

Sect. 2. Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed 
to vest in the United States, any right of property in the soil, or to affect 
the rights of individuals therein, otherwise than the same shall or may 
be transferred by such individuals to the United States. 

Sect. 3. And provided also, That the jurisdiction of the Laws of this 
Commonwealth over the persons and property of individuals residing 
within the limits of the cession aforesaid, shall not cease or determine 
until Congress, having accepted the said cession, shall by law provide for 
the government thereof, under their jurisdiction, in manner provided by 
the Article of the Constitution before recited. 

Thus Virginia stood ready with her largess to the general 
weal, and with accustomed promptness met the pressing 
demands of the hour. The year of 1 790 opened auspiciously — 
business over the whole country was prospering, commerce 
increasing, and the outlook was very encouraging. 

During this period of growing interest, Governor Ran- 
dolph filled his important office with honor to himself and 
satisfacftion to his people. 

He had married Martha Cooke, and died at his seat, 
"Green Creek," in February, 1797, leaving numerous de- 
scendants. 



LXXVII. 

HENRY LEE. 

Governor. 

December i, 1791, to December i, 1794. 

Henry Lee, the second child of Henry Lee and Lucy 
Grymes, was born January 29, 1756, at " Leesylvania," his 
father's seat, which was situated on a point of land jutting 
into the Potomac three miles above Dumfries, then the county 
town of Prince William County. He was educated at Prince- 
ton College, where he early displayed a genius which later 
events developed, and which displayed itself in a remarkably 
distinguished military career. He was preparing himself for 
the profession of law, and was about to sail for England to pur- 
sue that study when the outbreak of war changed his destiny. 
Soon after the battle of Lexington, at the age of nineteen, he 
entered the army as captain of cavalry. He was present at 
many important a(5lions in the Northern Department of the 
United States, was in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, 
and Springfield, and by his prompt and sagacious course soon 
became a favorite of General Washington. 

In the difficult and critical operations in Pennsj-lvania, 
New Jersey, and New York, Lee was always placed near the 
enemy and reserved for the command of situations which 
required the exercise of those high talents with which he 
was endowed. He was promoted to the rank of Major, in 
command of a separate corps of cavalry, and Congress, in 
November, 1780, advanced him to a lieutenant-colonelcy 
of dragoons, and added to his corps three companies of 
infantry. It has been said by a distinguished writer, in speak- 
ing of Lee's command : 

"It was, perhaps, the finest corps that made its appearance on the 
arena of the Revolutionary War. It was formed expressly for Colonel 

287 



288 772^^ GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Lee, under an order of General Washington while the arni}- lay in New 
Jersey. It consisted, at this time, of about 300 men in equal proportion 
of infantry and horse. Both men and officers were picked from the army ; 
the officers with reference only to their talents and qualities for service, 
and the men, by a proportionable selection from the troops of each state 
enlisted for three years or for the war." 

As an illustration of Henrj^ L,ee's coolness and daring, 
we will recount briefly two incidents in his Northern campaign. 
During the occupation of Philadelphia by the British, Lee's 
activity and success in cutting off their supplies and commu- 
nications, drew upon him the special attention of the enemy. 
They determined to surround and capture or destroy him. 
This movement resulted in driving him into the " Spread 
Eagle Tavern," of which we have the following account : 

"General Weedou, in a letter to R. H. Lee, dated Valley Forge, ist 
February, 1778, states that a surprise was attempted by two hundred 
British light horse against Captain Harry Lee, who was quartered about 
six miles below Valley Forge. The enemy on the night of the 20th Jan- 
uary, set out upon this expedition by a circuitous route of twenty miles, 
eluded the vigilance of his vedettes, and reached his quarters at daylight. 
With great a<5tivity Lee first secured the doors, which they made fruitless 
attempts to force ; then mustered his garrison, consisting of a corporal 
and four men. Lieutenant Lindsay, Major Jamiesou, and himself, amount- 
ing to eight in all ; and by judiciously posting them, though not sufficient 
in number to man each window, he obliged the enemj^ to retire after an 
adlion of half an hour. Lieutenant Lindsay received a slight wound in 
the hand; four or five of his men, who were out of the house, were 
captured. Five of the attacking party were killed and several woiinded. 
When foiled in their attempt to force the doors, they endeavored to take 
off the horses from a stable near the house, which was enfiladed by the end 
window. To tliis place Lee immediately drew his force, and, to deceive 
the enemy, cheered loudly, exclaiming, 'Fire away, men, here comes our 
infantry ; we will have them all ! ' This produced a precipitate retreat. 
He then sallied, mustered his troops, and pi;rsued, but to no purpose. 
Garden adds, ' He assured the dragoons under his command, who gallantly 
joined in defending the house, that he should consider their future estab- 
lishment in life as his peculiar care, and he honorabl}' kept his word. 
They were all in turn commissioned, and by their exemplary good conduct 
increased their own renown, and the reputation of their regiment.' " 

This event gave the Commander-in-Chief great pleasure, 
and he mentioned it in his orders with special approbation. 



HENRY LEE. 289 

Again Major L,ee made a brilliant and successful movement 
upon the British post at Paulus's Hook (now Jersey City), 
toward the close of the summer of 1779. 

"After the recapture of Stony Point, toward tlic close of the summer of 
1779, while Sir Henry Clinton was encamped upon Harlem Heights, a 
plan was formed for surprising the garrison at Paulus's Hook. The enter- 
prise was intrusted to Major Henr}^ Lee, then on the west side of the 
Hudson, back of Hohoken. A feeling of security made the garrison care- 
less, and they were unprepared for a sudden attack when it was made. 
Preparatory to the attack, troops were stationed near the Hudson to watch 
the distant enemy, who might cross the river and intercept retreat, for it 
was not designed to hold the post when captured. Lee marched with 
three hundred picked men, followed by a strong detachment from Lord 
Stirling's division as a reserve. Lee's march toward Bergen excited no 
surprise, for foraging parties of Americans as large as this were often out 
in that diredlion. The reserve halted at the new bridge over the Hacken- 
sack, fourteen miles from the Hook, from which' point Lee had taken the 
road among the hills, nearest the Hudson. At three o'clock on the morn- 
ing of the nineteenth of August (1779), Lee reached the Harsimus Creek, 
at the point where the railway now crosses it, and within half an hour 
he crossed the ditch through the loosely barred gate, and entered the main 
work undiscovered. The sentinels were either absent or asleep, and the 
surprise was complete. He captured one hundred and fifty-nine of the 
garrison including officers, and then attacked the circvilar redoubt, into which 
a large portion of the remainder retreated, with the commander. It was too 
strong tobeeffe(?ted by small arms, and Lee retreated with his prisoners, with 
the loss of only two killed and three wounded, and arrived at camp, in triumph , 
at about ten o'clock in the morning. This gallant act was greatly applauded 
in the camp, in Congress, and throughout the countrj^ and made the enemy 
more cautious. On the twenty-second of September following, Congress hon- 
ored Lee with a vote of thanks, and ordered a gold medal to be struck and pre- 
sented to him. On one side is a bust of the hero with the words, ^Henrico 
Lee, Legionis Eqiiii Prefecto Coniitia Americana.^ The American Con- 
gress to Henry Lee, colonel of cavalry. On the reverse, Non obstantib. 
Fliiminibus Vallis. Astutia Virtute Bellica Parva Mann Hostes Vicit 
ViFlosq. Armis Htnnanitafc Devinxit. In Bleni Pugn. Panliis Hook 
Die XIX At/g. rjjg. ' Notwithstanding rivers and intrenchments, he with 
a small band conquered the foe by warlike skill and prowess, and 
finnly bound by his humanity those who had been conquered by his 
arms. In memorj- of the confli<5l at Paulus's Hook, nineteenth of Au- 
gust, 1 779-" 

The theatre of Colonel Lee's uniqite and brilliant opera- 
tions was, in 1781, changed from the North to the South, 



290 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

and in his " Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department 
of the United States," is preserved a thrilling and truthful 
account of that historic period. In January, 1781, he marched 
his legion to the South and joined the army of General 
Greene. General Washington wrote, Odlober 23, 1780: 
" Lee's corps will go to the southward ; I believe it will 
be found very useful ; the corps is an excellent one, and 
the officer at the head of it has great resources of genius." 
These resources soon had an ample drain upon them — in 
the expedition to the Haw ; when he crossed the Dan ; in 
his plan to ensnare Pyle ; at Guilford Court House ; in the 
skirmishes near the Dan ; when he rejoined Greene and 
crossed the Haw ; in his skirmish with Tarleton ; at the 
battle of Guilford ; at Fort Watson ; at the siege of Fort 
Motte ; when he captured Fort Granby and Fort Galphin ; 
at Forts Cornwallis and Grierson ; at the siege of Fort 
Ninety-six ; at Eutaw Springs ; when he captured Fort Wat- 
son ; at the siege of Augusta ; when he joined General Marion 
at Quinby's Bridge. His impetuous charge at the battle of 
Eutaw Springs saved the day, and in the wide-spread sweep 
which Lee's legion made from the Santee to Augusta, we 
gather some idea of his qualities and success as a soldier. 
From April 15th to June 5th, a(5ting sometimes with Marion, 
afterwards with Pickens, and often alone, Lee's legion con- 
stituted the principal force which carried the British strong- 
holds. They made over iioo prisoners, a number which 
quadrupled their own. Under such incessant and arduous 
service Colonel Lee's health became seriously impaired. 

In 0(5lober, soon after the battle of Eutaw, Lee was sent 
on a special mission to Washington, and he arrived at York- 
town about the period of the surrender of Cornwallis. Re- 
turning South he remained until the close of the campaign, 
when he retired from the army. He parted with sorrow from 
the noble corps he had often led to battle, and separated from 
his commander and brother officers with sincere regret ; but 
he carried with him ' ' the love and thanks ' ' of the great 
Washington, and the following tribute from Nathaniel 
Greene, viz. : 



HENRY LEE. 291 

"Everybody knows I have the highest opiniou of you as au officer, 
and you know I love yoM as a friend ; whatever ruaj^ be your determina- 
tion, to retire or continue in service, my affection will accompany you. 
I am, with esteem and affection, your most obedient humble servant, 

Nathaniel Greene." 

Headquarters, January 27tli, 1782. 

Colonel Lee returned to Virginia, and a short while 
after, married Matilda, eldest daughter of his kinsman, 
Philip lyUdwell Lee, of "Stratford," on the bluffs of the 
Potomac, Westmoreland County, Va. 

Soon after the settlement of peace. Colonel Lee was 
elecfled a member of the Virginia delegation to Congress, 
where he devoted himself to advancing measures preparatory 
to the adoption of the Federal Constitution. 

"He was also among those of General Washington's friends who most 
earnestly persuaded him to undertake the all-important duties of the first 
presidenc)'. Happening to be in the vicinity- of Mount Vernon, when 
Washington was about to fill for the first time the office of President, on 
the impulse of the moment, he prepared the address which was presented 
to that illustrious man by his neighbors, and was so well adapted to the 
occasion as to be thought by Marshall worthy to be transferred to the 
pages of historJ^" 

"The sentiments of veneration and affection which were felt by all 
classes of his fellow-citizens for their patriot chief, were manifested by the 
most flattering marks of heartfelt respect ; and by addresses which evinced 
the imlimited confidence reposed in his virtues and talents. Although a 
place cannot be given to these addresses general!}', yet that from the cit- 
izens of Alexandria derives such pretentions to particular notice from the 
recollection that it is to be considered as an effusion from the hearts of his 
neighbors and private friends, that its insertion may be pardoned. It is 
in the following words : "Again your country commands your care ; obedi- 
ent to its wishes, unmindful of your ease, we see yo^x again relinquishing 
the bliss of retirement ; and this, too, at a period of life, when nature itself 
seems to authorize a preference of repose. Not to extol your glory as a 
soldier ; not to pour forth our gratitude for past services ; not to acknowl- 
edge the justice of the unexampled honor which has been conferred upon 
you by the spontaneous and unanimous suffrage of three millions of free- 
men, in your election to the supreme magistracy; nor to admire the 
patriotism which directs your conduct, do your neighbors and friends now 
address you. Themes less splendid, but more endearing, impress our 
minds. The first and best of citizens must leave us ; our aged must lose 
their ornament ; our youth their model ; our agriculture its improver ; our 
commerce its friend ; our infant academy its protector ; our poor their 



292 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

benefactor ; the interior navigation of the Potomac (an event replete with 
the most extensive utility, already by your unremitted exertions brought 
into partial use) its institutor and promoter. Farewell ! go, and make a 
grateful people happy, a people who will be doubly grateful when they 
contemplate this recent sacrifice for their interest. To that Being who 
niaketh and unmaketh at His will, we commend you; and after the 
accomplishment of the arduous business to which you are called, may He 
restore to us again the best of men, and the most beloved fellow-citizen." 

In 1788 Colonel L,ee was a member of the Virginia Con- 
vention to decide upon the adoption of the Constitution, and 
was an earnest advocate of the measure. He subsequently 
served in the Virginia House of Delegates, and in 1791 was 
eledled Governor of the Commonwealth for the term of three 
years. 

Colonel Ivce's private life was at this time shadowed by 
sickness and death in his family. From Stratford, March 
4th, 1790, he writes to Mr. Madison : 

"Mrs. Lee's health is worse and worse. She begs you will present 
her most cordially to her friends, Mrs. Colden and Mrs. Hamilton, and 
unites with me in best wishes for your health and happiness." 

His biography goes on to state : "This was her last message. She is 
mentioned no more in their correspondence. A few days after this he suf- 
fered a second calamity, in the death of his eldest son, a beautiful boy often 
years old. He was devoted to the child, and found some consolation in 
wearing his miniature, which is still preserved in the family. He had 
previously lost a son, who died in infancy, named Nathaniel Green. Two 
other children remained to him, a daughter, Lucy; and a son, Henry, 
who so eloquently defended his memory, and who died in Paris, in 1837." 

On December i, 1791, Colonel Lee entered upon his duties 
as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. This high 
office he filled honorably and creditably. On June 18, 1794, 
he married Anne Hill, daughter of Charles Carter, of 
"Shirley," James River. 

But Governor Lee's life of civic distincftion was broken 
in upon by a call to military duty. The Whisky Insur- 
recftion in Western Pennsylvania, resisting all peaceable 
attempts at dispersion, demanded a forcible suppression. 
To Governor Lee, Washington intrusted the general com- 
mand of an expedition into the insurgent counties, con- 



HENRY LEE. 298 

ducfting the forces himself as far as Bedford. Requisitions 
had been made upon the Governors of Pennsylvania, Marj^- 
land, Virginia, and New Jersey for 15,000 men in all. The 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey troops formed the right wing, 
and those of Virginia and Maryland the left. Over the 
Alleghanies they made their toilsome way just after a severe 
rain, wading knee deep in mud. On the other side of the 
mountains, they found that the advance of such a heavy force 
had terminated all resistance, and they soon resumed their 
march homeward. 

In 1799 General Lee again served in Congress, and when 
intelligence was received of the death of Washington, he was 
appointed by the House to pronounce an eulogium. The 
Resolutions which he drew up on this occasion contained the 
words, now ever associated with Washington, ''First in 
war, first in peace, fij'st in the hearts of his countrymen.''' In 
1809 General Lee wrote his " Memoirs of the War in the 
Southern Department of the United States." This book was 
re-published in 1827, with additions by his son, Merjor Henry 
Ivce, and again in 1869, with revisions and a biography of 
the author, by his son, General Robert E. Lee. Possessing 
the peculiar charm of being written by an eye-witness of the 
scenes described, it is also a valuable contribution to the 
history of a period whose tremendous issues still fire the soul 
after the lapse of a hundred years. 

In 181 1 General Lee removed with his family to Alexan- 
dria, for the purpose of educating his children, who, by his 
second marriage, were Charles Carter, Sidney Smith. Robert 
Edward, Anne Carter, and Mildred. About this time the 
second war with England stirred his soldier heart, and after 
the disastrous campaigns in Canada he was offered and 
accepted a Major-General's commission in the army. Pre- 
paring to leave home at this summons, 

"Business called him to Baltiiuoie, and being in Mr. Hanson's house for 
the purpose of transa(5ling it, he was detained there so long that when 
about to leave, he found it so surrounded by a mob as to. prevent his 
dci)arture. The results of that night, fatal to General Lingan, nearly fatal 
to General Lee, and disgraceful to party spirit, are too well known to need 



294 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

repetition. The injuries he received prevented his taking part in the War 
of 1812, and eventually terminated his life." 

The outrages of this mob grew out of indignation at the 
stridlures on the declaration of war, published by the " Fed- 
eral Republican," a newspaper printed in Baltimore. 

Suffering acutely from the wounds infiidled at this time, 
and being advised to try the mild climate of the West Indies, 
General Lee set sail thither in 1813, and died on his homeward 
voyage March 25, 18 18. 

Instead of landing at Savannah, he only reached Cumber- 
land Island, on the coast of Georgia. Here he was received 
by Mrs. Shaw, the daughter of General Greene. He expired 
at the home of his late beloved commander, and his remains 
were placed by his side. 

Thus closed the career of a distinguished Virginian, who 
bequeathed an honorable record of soldierly prowess and 
statesmanly ability to his family, his state, and his country ; 
but, who*e greatest gift was in that son, who in later days 
did tread ' ' the ways of glory ' ' and the path of pain — Robert 
Edward Lee, the peerless knight, the perfe(5l soldier, the 
humble Christian, the complete man ! 

lyce County, formed in 1792 from Russell County, was 
named in honor of Governor Lee. 



LXXVIII. 



ROBERT BROOKE. 

Governor. 
December i, 1794, to December i, 1796. 

The year in which Robert Brooke became Governor of 
Virginia, had been signalized by two very important events 
in the United States : 

"i. The insurredlion in Western Pennsylvania; 2. 
Wayne's vidlory over the Northwestern Indians. 

"The first, taught Americans, among other lessons, that 
the new central government was strong enough in the hearts 
of the people to crush out banded resistance to its lawful 
authority in any local confines. 

"The second, broke the backbone of the Indian War, and 
proved it thenceforth impossible for the copper-colored tribes 
to stem the course of white emigration towards the Missis- 
sippi." 

On the ist of Januar}^ of this year, also, the foreign and 
domestic debts of the United States did not exceed the sum 
of forty-eight millions of dollars, so that the position of the 
country in every aspedl was of the most encouraging char- 
adler at home, and foreign relations were, for the time, tran- 
quil. In 1795, Washington in his address to Congress, 
December 3, presents a pleasing view of the prosperity of the 
nation : 

" Our agriculture, cotnmercc, and manufactures prosper beyond for- 
mer example. Our population advances with a celerity, which, exceeding 
the most sanguine calculations, proportionally augments our strength and 
resources, and guarantees our future security. Ever^' part of the Union 
displays indications of rapid and various improvement, aujd with burdens 
so light as scarcely to l)e perceived, with resources full}' adequate to our 
present exigencies, with governments founded on the genuine principles 
of rational liberty, and with mild and wholesome laws, is it too much to 

295 



296 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

say, that our country exhibits a spectacle of national happiness never sur- 
passed, if ever before equalled ? ' ' 

Under such favorable auspices, Robert Brooke became 
the chief executive of the Old Dominion. His grandfather 
had been a native of England, but came to Virginia in 1710 
with Robert Beverley, the historian, and Governor Spots- 
wood. He accompanied the latter on his famous expedition 
across the Blue Ridge Mountains, and was decorated with 
one of the Horseshoe badges, in memory of the trip. The 
badge is said to be still in the possession of his descendants. 
It consists of a golden horseshoe set with garnets, having 
inscribed on it the motto : 

"vSic juvat transcendere niontes." 

This Knight of the Horseshoe, Brooke, had several sons, 
the youngest of whom, Richard, married a Miss Taliaferro. 
Their son, Robert, is the subject of this sketch. He was 
educated at the University of Edinburgh, and did not return 
to Virginia until the Revolutionary War was in progress. 
On his voyage home he was captured and carried to New 
York, from whence he was sent back to England by Eord 
Howe, the British Admiral. From England Robert Brooke 
went to Scotland, and finally made his way to France, from 
which country he sailed to Virginia in a frigate containing 
arms which were supplied to the Continentals b}- the French 
government. 

He immediately enlisted in the cause of independence, and 
joined a volunteer troop of cavalry commanded by Captain 
Earkin Smith. He was captured January, 1781, in a charge 
of dragoons at Westham, six miles below Richmond, but was 
soon exchanged, and returned at once to the service. After 
the close of the war he began the practice of law, and in this 
noble profession acquired marked distindtion. 

In 1794, Robert Brooke represented the County of Spotsyl- 
vania in the House of Delegates of Virginia, and in the same 
j^ear was elecfted Governor of the state by the Legislature . 

Upon the duties of this high ofhce he entered Decem- 
ber I, 1794. 



ROBERT BROOKE. 297 

In 1795, Governor Brooke was eledled Grand-Master of 
the Grand L,odge of iVncient Free and Accepted Masons of 
Virginia, and served until 1797. 

His term as Governor having expired 1796, he was in 
1798 eletfted Attorney-General of Virginia. In this office he 
died in 1799. aged only thirty-eight years. 

Robert Brooke's career was brief but brilliant, and before 
he had reached the prime of life, he was called by death to give 
up the rewards of honor and merit which his people delighted 
to bestow upon him. 

The County of Brooke, formed in 1797 from Ohio County, 
was named in honor of Governor Brooke. 



XX 



LXXIX. 



JAMES WOOD. 

Goveriior. 

December i, 1796, to December i, 1799. 

Jamks Wood, gentleman, having surveyed and laid out a 
parcel of land at the Court House, in Frederick County, 
Virginia, in twenty-six lots of half an acre each, with streets, 
for a town by the name of Winchester, and having sold the 
same to divers persons, who built and settled thereon, the 
town was duly established by A61 of Assembl}^ February, 
1752, Robert Dinwiddie, Governor. So, James Wood, gentle- 
man, may be justly regarded as the founder of this interesting 
Virginia town. He was also the founder of a distinguished 
family. His son, James Wood, Junior, was born about 1750, 
in Frederick County, a county which he subsequently repre- 
sented in the Virginia Convention of 1776, memorable for 
having framed the State Constitution. From that body he 
received a commission, November 15, 1776, as Colonel in the 
Virginia line, w^here he rendered gallant service; he was also 
engaged in the defense of the frontiers of Virginia against 
the Indians. He was long a member of the State Council, 
and on December i, 1796, was eledled Governor of the State. 
This year was marked by some important events, chief among 
them being Washington's retirement from public life. In his 
last .speech to Congress he says (December 7, 1796): 

"The situation in which I now stand, for the last time, in the midst 
of the representatives of the people of the United States, naturally recalls 
the period when the administration of the present form of government 
commenced, and I cannot omit the occasion to congratulate you and my 
country on the success of the experiment ; nor to repeat my fervent sup- 
plications to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe and Sovereign Arbiter of 
Nations, that His providential care may still be extended to the United 
States; that the virtue and happiness of the people may be preserved ; 

^98 



JAMES WOOD. 399 

aud that the government which they have instituted for the protection of 
their liberties, may be perpetual." 

During this period, also, the great struggle between the 
Federalists and Repviblicans was at its height ; and the Alien 
and Sedition Laws, ac5ls of the Adams administration, though 
aimed at French emissaries who were disturbing the public 
peace, startled the people as an invasion of the liberty of the 
citizen. Virginia began to arm. The Assembly diredled 
the ere(5lion of two arsenals and an armory sufficient to store 
ten thousand muskets; and on December 2, 1798, passed the 
celebrated "Resolutions of 'qS-'qq.'! These Resolutions 
declared ' ' The Alien and Sedition Laws " to be an exercise 
of other ponders than those conferred upon the General Govern- 
ment. 

It was in the midst of this political turmoil that the two 
greatest Virginians of the century died. Patrick Henry 
expired in June, and Washington in December, 1799. Both 
died in the Christian faith. 

James Wood, as Governor of Virginia, upon whom was 
imposed so many important duties in an epoch of important 
events, maintained the dignity of his station and the honor 
of his people in a notable degree. After his term of office as 
Governor was filled, he was commissioned a Brigadier-General 
of state troops; he was also, for a time, President of the 
Virginia branch of the Order of the Cincinnati. He died 
in Richmond, Virginia, June 16, 1813. 

The County of Wood, formed in 1799, from Harrison 
County, was named in commemoration of his patriotic services. 

Governor Wood sustained a high reputation as an officer in 
the Revolutionary War, and although opposed to the prevail- 
ing political opinions of Virginia during the administration of 
President Adams, he enjoyed such a share of the confidence 
of the people as to be placed at the head of their State Gov- 
ernment. 



LXXX. 



JAMES MONROE. 

Governor. 

December r, ijif'g. to December i, 1802. 

Jaisiks Monroe, twice Oovernor of Virginia, and twice 
President of the United States, held the reins of government 
in state and national affairs at important periods, and admin- 
istered the high offices to which he was called with prudence, 
al)ility, and a complete devotion to the public good. He 
was the son of vSpence Monroe, a planter descended from 
Captain Monroe, an officer in the British Army under the 
reign of Charles I., who emigrated to Virginia in 1632. 
James Monroe was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, 
April 28, 1758. He was educated at William and Mary Col- 
lege, which institution he left in 1776, to enter the army as a 
cadet. Not waiting to finish his course of education, he 
offered himself to his country's service in the time of her 
adversity. He was soon commissioned Ivieutenant, and took 
an adlive part in the campaign on the Hudson. In the 
attack on Trenton, at the head of a small detachment, he 
captured one of the British batteries. On this occasion he 
received a ball in the shoulder, and was promoted to a cap- 
taincy for gallantry on the field. He returned to the army 
to serve as Aide-de-Camp to I^ord vStirling, with the rank of 
Major, taking part in the campaigns of 1777 and 1778, and 
distinguishing himself in the battles of Brandywdne, German- 
town, and Monmouth. By accepting the place of Aide to 
I^ord vStirling, James Monroe lost his rank in the regular 
line, and failing in his efforts to re-enter the army as a com- 
missioned officer, he returned to Virginia to stud)' law under 
the direction of Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of the 
state. When the British appeared soon afterwards in Vii'- 

300 



JAMES MONROE. 301 

ginia, Monroe exerled himself in organizing the militia of 
the lower counties, and served as a volunteer with the Vir- 
ginia forces raised to meet the invading armies of Arnold and 
Cornwallis. In 1782 he was elecfled to the Assembly of Vir- 
ginia from King George County, and was appointed by that 
body a member of the Executive Council at the age of 
twenty-three. 

On June 9, 1783, he was elecfted to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, of which body he continued a member until the 
close of the session of 1786. 

In 1785 he married a daughter of lyawrence Kortright, of 
New York, a lady celebrated for her beauty and accomplish- 
ments, and after the expiration of his term in Congress, 
being ineligible for the next three years, Monroe settled in 
Fredericksburg, Virginia. 

In 1787 he was re-eledted to the General Assembly, and 
in 17S8 was chosen a delegate to the Virginia Convention to 
decide upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution. In 
1785, when in Congress, he had advocated an extension of 
the powers of that body and moved to invest it with author- 
ity to regulate trade between the states. This led to the 
Convention at Annapolis and the subsequent adoption of the 
Federal Constitution at the famous Convention held in Phila- 
delphia, 1 787 . But, when that instrument was presented to the 
Virginia Convention for ratification, James Monroe opposed 
its adoption, fearing that without amendment it would confer 
too much power upon the general government. The course 
of the minorit}- in Convention was approved by the great 
mass of the people of Virginia, and Monroe was chosen 
ITnited States vSenator in 1 790. Here he was a prominent 
representative of the anti- Federal party until the end of his 
term in 1794. In this year he was appointed to succeed 
Gouverneur Morris as Minister to France. Reaching Paris 
August 2, shortly after the fall of Robespierre, Monroe was 
received by the National Convention of F'rance in full ses- 
sion, on the 15th, with enthusiastic demonstrations of respedl. 
The occasion ended by the President of the Convention giv- 
ing Monroe ' ' the accolade, ' ' or national embrace, and the Assem- 



302 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

bly decreed that the flags of the United States and of France 
should be displayed together in the hall of the Convention. 
But, Monroe's marked exhibition of sympathy with the French 
Republic, displeased the home administration, as John Jay 
had been sent to England to negotiate a treaty, which these 
expressions were calculated to impede. So, with charges 
that he had transcended instrudlions on the one hand, and 
failed to present the Jay Treaty in its true charadler to the 
French Government on the other, in December, 1796, Mon- 
roe was recalled. On his return to America, he published a 
"View of the Condudl of the Executives in the Foreign 
Affairs of the United States," which explained his position 
in the trying circumstances in which he had been placed. 
His own county, immediately upon his arrival, returned him 
to the state Legislature, and in 1799 he was eledled Gover- 
nor of Virginia. 

The first j^ear of Governor Monroe's administration was 
marked by the historic event known as "Gabriel's Insurrec- 
tion." The immediate cause of this affair was never traced, 
but its sinister design, though imperfedlly conceived and 
wholly frustrated, has made it a dark page" in the annals of 
Virginia. At mid-day on the 30th August, 1800, Governor 
Monroe was informed that the slaves in the neighborhood of 
Richmond would rise that night, would murder their masters 
and families, proceed to Richmond, be joined there by other 
slaves, when they would seize the public arms and ammuni- 
tion, kill the whites, and take possession of the city. This 
timely warning, together with the providential interposition 
of a storm which made certain streams impassable, frustrated 
this wicked plan. The plot was fully exposed, and it was 
satisfadlorily demonstrated that a general insurredlion of the 
slaves in the state was contemplated. The ring-leaders were 
caught and executed on the 12th and 15th of September, and 
"Gabriel," the chief conspirator, suffered death in January 
following. Governor Monroe's acSlion in this crisis was 
prompt and decisive. He called at once several regiments of 
state militia into service, and by viligance and determination 
crushed and extinguished "Gabriel's Insurredlion," 



JAMES MONROE. 303 

An event occurred in the last year of this term of Governor 
Monroe which must be briefly noted here. On July 6, 1802, 
in Winchester, Virginia, a Revolutionary hero of uncommon 
fame passed away. "Daniel Morgan, of Virginia rifle 
renown — served everywhere, surrendered nowhere, served to 
the end of the war — died July 6, 1802," is the short but tell- 
ing tribute paid this brave soldier in the "Records of the 
Revolutionary War." He was born in New Jersey in 1737, 
and at an early age came to Virginia. He was a private 
soldier under Braddock in 1755, and when the Revolutionary 
War broke out he joined the army under Washington, at 
Cambridge, and commanded a corps of riflemen. He accom- 
panied Arnold to Quebec, and distinguished himself greatly 
in the siege of that city. I^ater he was appointed to the 
command of the i ith Virginia Regiment, in which was incor- 
porated his rifle corps. Winning ever laurels at the North, 
he became even more brilliant in his exploits when ordered 
to the South, and as a partisan officer won such fame that, 
after his victory at the Cowpens, Congress voted him a gold 
medal. After the war he was elecfled a member of Congress, 
but resided chiefly on his estate in Clarke County, Virginia. 
He died in Winchester, Virginia, and the following is the 
inscription upon the simple slab which covers his grave : 

"Major-General Daniel Morgan departed this life on July 6, 1S02, in 
the sixty-seventh year of his age. Patriotism and valor were the promi- 
nent features of his character, and the honorable services he rendered to 
his country during the Revolutionary War crowned him with glory and 
will remain in the hearts of his countrymen, a perpetual monument to his 
memory. ' ' 

The occurrences of 1802, during Governor Monroe's first 
term in that office, would be imperfecftly chronicled if the 
date of Daniel Morgan's death did not recall the lustre he 
shed upon the annals of Virginia. 

At the close of his term as Governor, James Monroe was 
appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the French government, 
to negotiate in conjuncflion with the resident Minister, Mr. 
Livingston, the purchase of Louisiana, or a right of depot 
for the United States on the Mississippi. This was soon 



304 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

accomplished, and in two weeks the " Territory of Orleans '' 
and " Distri(5l of Louisiana " were secured for the sum of $15,- 
000,000. In the same year, 1802, Monroe was commissioned 
Minister Plenipotentiary to England, and whilst in the midst 
of important diplomatic negotiations, he was dire(5led to pro- 
ceed to Madrid, as Minister Extraordinary and Plenipoten- 
tiary, to adjust the boundaries of Louisiana. Failing to 
accomplish this, in 1806 he was recalled to England to adl 
with Mr. Pinckney in further negotiation for the protection 
of American seamen, and to secure a treaty with Great 
Britain. The treaty was concluded, but not proving satis- 
factory to the President, it was sent back for revisal. All 
efforts to effecft this failed, and Monroe returned to America. 

The time for the eledtion of President was now approach- 
ing, and Monroe's name was brought forward by a consider- 
able body of the Republican party, but, for reasons satisfactory 
to himself, Monroe withdrew from the canvass. In 18 10 he 
was again ele(5led to the General Assembly of Virginia, and 
in 181 1 was for a second time chosen the chief executive of 
the state. On the 25th November, 181 1, he was seledled by 
President Madison as Secretary of State, and was succeeded 
by George William Smith, Lieutenant-Governor, in the office 
of Governor. The position of Secretary of State he held 
until the close of President Madison's second term, with the 
exception of about six months (the last months of the second 
war with Great Britain), when he discharged the arduous 
duties of Secretary of War. He devoted his time and talents 
with great energy to the trusts confided to him, and infused 
order and efficiency into the departments under his charge. 
Finding the public credit much impaired at the time of the 
siege of New Orleans, he pledged his private means as sub- 
sidiary to the credit of the government, and enabled the city 
to successfully oppose the forces of the enemy. 

At the end of Madison's term in 181 7, James Monroe 
succeeded to the presidency of the United States, and in 1821 
was re-elected without opposition. Although many import- 
ant measures mark James Monroe's two terms as President of 
the United States, none will be more intexesting to the student 



JAMES MONROE. 305 

of American history than the promulgation in his message of 
December 2, 1823, now generally known as the " Monroe 
Doctrine." He said : 

"The occasion has been judged proper for asserting as a principle in 
which the rights of the United vStates are involved, that the American 
continents, by the free and independent condition which they have 
assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for 
future colonization by any European powers. ' ' 

On March 4, 1825, Monroe retired from ofhce and returned 
to his home at Oak Hill, in Loudoun County, Virginia. He 
was chosen a Justice of the Peace, and as such sat in the 
county court — a beautiful illustration of the untrammeled 
principles of this Republic, that a man should be deemed 
worthy to represent its interests at the courts of the great 
powers of the civilized world ; that he should be twice 
selecfted as the chief executive of his own state, and twice 
chosen to preside over the councils of the nation ; and yet, 
after these high honors, that he should feel it no falling off 
to sit as a modest Justice of the Peace, and in this narrower 
sphere hold out the scales of Right and Wrong. 

In 1829 James Monroe became a member of the Virginia 
Convention to revise the old Constitution, and was chosen to 
preside over its meetings, but ill-health compelled him to 
resign this position and return to his home at Oak Hill. His 
wife died in 1830, and in the summer of that year he removed 
to the residence of his son-in-law, Samuel ly. Gouverneur, in 
New York City, where, in a few short months, he finished 
his earthly course. His life had been a long consecration to 
the service of his country, and he had enjoyed in an unusual 
degree the gratitude of his countrymen ; honors crowded upon 
him, and the influence of his large understanding, benevo- 
lence, integrity, and simplicity, won for the period of his 
greatest power, the enviable title of ' ' The era of good feeling. ' ' 
With pomp and reverence his remains were removed to Rich- 
mond, Virginia, in 1858, and laid to rest in his native state, 
on July 5, in Hollywood cemetery. 



LXXXI. 



JOHN PAGE. 

Governor. 
December i, 1802, to December i, 1805. 

John Page, of " Rosewell," Gloucester County, Virginia, 
was descended from Colonel John Page, who emigrated from 
England to Virginia in 1650. This latter is said to have had 
distinguished family connecftions, and he soon became promi- 
nent in public affairs. He was a member of the Colonial 
Council, and died January 23, 1690, in the County of York. 
He w^as buried in Bruton Parish churchyard, Williamsburg, 
Virginia, and his wife, Alice Page, is interred by his side. 
Their son, Matthews married Mary Mann, of Timberneck 
Bay, an heiress of large possessions, who bequeathed an 
immense estate to her son, Mann Page, the founder of " Rose- 
well.' ' This celebrated mansion was the pride and admiration 
of successive generations, and justly so, from its reputed 
grandeur — but, in later years, it has been standing on Car- 
ter's Creek, in sight of York River, like a deserted English 
castle, an eloquent reminder of the transitory nature of 
earthly things. It has long been an accepted fadt that the orig- 
inal "Rosewell" plantation was the ancient Werowxomico, 
where King Powhatan in earlier days held his chief resi- 
dence. 

Mann Page, the builder of the Rosewell house, was a 
man of wealth, his landed estates being in Prince William, 
Frederick, Spottsylvania, Essex, James City, Hanover, 
Gloucester, and King William. He had eight thousand 
acres in Frederick, called "Pageland," more than ten thou- 
sand in Prince William called "Pageland," also; four thou- 
sand five hundred in Spottsylvania, one thousand called 
"Pampatike" in King William, two thousand in Hanover, 



JOHN PAGE. 307 

near two thousand in James City, besides other lands. His 
great-grandson, John Page, sometime Governor of Virginia, 
was born April 17, 1743, at "Rosewell," an estate which he 
subsequently inherited. He was primarily educated by pri- 
vate tutors, and finally went to William and Mary College, 
an institution from which he graduated with distindlion in 
1763. He was appointed a visitor of this College in 1768, 
and in 1773 he represented it in the House of Burgesses. As 
a member of the Council in 1775, he incurred the displeasure 
of Lord Dunmore by advising him to give up the powder 
which the Governor had seized. 

John Page displayed during the War of the Revolution an 
ardent attachment to the cause of the Colonies, was in 1776 
one of the most conspicuous members of the Convention 
which formed the Constitution of Virginia, and was appointed 
one of Wi^ first Council under that Constitution. 

During the struggle for freedom he contributed freely 
from his private fortune to the public cause, and served as 
Colonel of militia from Gloucester County in 1781. In 1789 
he was eledted one of the representatives in Congress from 
Virginia, and continued to a(5l in that capacity until 1797. 
In 1794 he served as Lieutenant-Colonel of a regiment from 
Gloucester County in the suppression of the ' ' Whiskey 
Insurredlion " in Western Pennsylvania. On December i, 
1802, he became Governor of Virginia, filling the office ably 
and acceptably until December i, 1805. In 1806 Governor 
Page was appointed by President Jefferson, United States 
Commissioner of Loans for Virginia, and held that position 
until his death in 1808. 

Among some of the interesting events in the United 
States during Governor Page's administration, may be noted 
the P'astern Confederacy Plot of 1804. This disunion pro- 
jedl originated among some disappointed politicians, and 
happily came to naught. An Eastern Confederacy embracing 
all of New England, with New York and New Jersey, was 
the scheme for which these ambitious spirits labored at that 
time, but in vain. The Union, cemented in blood, was too 
strong for such disloyal sons to dissever. 



308 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

Growing out of the turbulent condition of political feeling 
at this period, occurred a tragedy which even at this distant 
day cannot be recalled without the deepest pain. The duel 
between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, which re- 
sulted in the death of the latter, cast a gloom over the whole 
country. To his friends and followers Hamilton's death 
seemed a martyrdom, and the unhappy author of this national 
calamity was pursued as a willful murderer ; indicflments 
were found against him in New York and New Jersey, and 
such was the public feeling that he had to take temporary 
refuge in Georgia. 

But as an offset to these reminiscences may be recounted 
the cession of Louisiana by Spain to France in 1802, and the 
])urchase of that valuable land by the United States in 1803. 
This year also witnessed the cession of an extended country 
by the friendly tribe of Kaskaskia Indians to the United 
States. This territory lay along the Mississippi, from the 
mouth of the Illinois to and up the Ohio, and is estimated as 
"among the most fertile within our limits." By a treaty 
with the Indians at Fort Wayne, also, nearly two million 
acres of land were granted to the United States. 

So that, during Governor Page's administration, import- 
ant acquisitions of territory were made to the whole country ; 
the United States set the first example to the world of oblig- 
ing the Barbary powders to respedl her flag by the force of 
arms, instead of a disgraceful tribute, and at home and 
abroad the power of the infant Republic was being sensibly 
felt. 

Virginia participated in the general prosperity, and peace 
and plenty reigned within her borders. 

Governor Page closed his administration as Governor 
December i, 1805, after two successive annual re-elections, 
when, under the provisions of the State Constitution, not 
being eligible again until after an interval of four years, he 
was succeeded by Mr. William H. Cabell. 

Governor Page was twice married and left a large family ; 
among his descendants may be found some of the most hon- 
ored names in the Commonwealth. 



JOHN PACE. 309 

He was distinguished in his walk among men for his tal- 
ents, pnrity of morals, and patriotism. In private, his do- 
mestic charadler was of peculiar simplicity and beaut)', and 
such were his attainments as a theologian and his zeal as a 
churchman, that many of his friends had urged him to take 
Orders, with a view to making him First Bishop of Virginia. 

He died at Richmond, Virginia, 0(5lober ii, 1808, and 
was buried in St. John's churchyard, where a handsome 
monument marks his grave. 

The County of Page, in Virginia, formed from Rocking- 
ham and Shenandoah Counties in 1831, was named in honor 
of Governor Paije. 



LXXXII. 



WILLIAM H. CABELL. 

Governor. 
December i, 1805, to December i, 1808. 

William H. Cabell, born December 16, 1772, at "Bos- 
ton Hill," Cumberland County, Virginia, was the son of 
Nicholas Cabell, and grandson of Dr. William Cabell, a 
surgeon in the British Navy, who settled in Virginia in 1724. 
After enjoying the best educationaradvantages, he graduated 
in July, 1793, at William and Mary College, and then pursued 
the study of law in Richmond. He was eledled to the General 
Assembly in 1796, from Amherst County, and was a member 
of that body in 1798, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, and on December 
I, 1805, was eledled Governor of Virginia, which office he 
filled for three years. 

An event which occurred in the administration of Governor 
Cabell has served to give that period an almost romantic 
interest. This was the trial of Aaron Burr, charged with 
treason against the government in an alleged design to found 
an empire in the western part of America. The trial was 
remarkable for the association in it of so many distinguished 
charadters. It was a bitter contest, but, despite all the influ- 
ence brought to bear, Burr escaped convidlion. The verdi(5l 
was, "Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty under the 
indi(5lment by any evidence submitted to us." His oppo- 
nents charged that he was a misguided, political intriguer, who 
had checked the soaring greatness of Hamilton and quenched 
that imperial soul ; that he had entered a paradise and filled the 
minds of Blennerha.ssett and his wife with dreams that chased 
the sweet sunshine of domestic felicity from their home, and 
made them wanderers and beggars upon earth ; that he was a 

310 



WILLIAM H. CABELL. 311 

wily schemer, who, after serving his country in many impor- 
tant and honorable positions, had now laid his sacrilegious 
hands upon the pillars of its Constitution, w^hich he had so often 
sworn to support — and these heated opponents claimed that 
such a man should not pass again into the outer world, a free, 
unfettered citizen. 

But his freedom, though legally won, was only in the 
seeming. His escape from convi(5lion had been .so narrow 
and his fears of further prosecution were .so great, that, after 
remaining concealed for .several weeks among his friends, he 
sailed for Europe under the name of G. H. Edwards. He 
remained in exile and poverty for several years, and finally, 
returning to America, died in obscurity and negledl in New 
York City. 

So ended the life of Aaron Burr — a life once full of golden 
promise. Endowed by nature with ability as a .soldier and a 
statesman, his distinguished talents had carried him on the 
wave of popular favor almost to the chief magistracy of the 
Nation, a position which he failed to reach by only one vote. 
He served as Vice-President of the United States, and even 
while his love of country seemed above suspicion, Ambition 
led him, like Lucifer, to fall, and doomed him, like Eucifer, 
" Never to hope again." 

Upon the expiration of Governor Cabell's term as chief 
executive of Virginia, he was ele(5led by the Legislature a 
Judge of the General Court, December 15, 1808, and in April, 
181 1, he was elected a Judge of the Court of Appeals. In 
this last office he adled until 1 85 1 , when he retired from the 
bench. He died at Richmond, Virginia, January 12, 1853, 
greatly beloved and widely lamented. The following extra (51 
from the resolutions of respe(5l to his memory, by the Court 
of Appeals and the bar of Virginia, will testify to the unusual 
worth of this noble man. 

"Resolved, That we cherish, ami shall ever retain, a grateful reiueni- 
brance of the signal excellence of the Honorable William H. Cabell, as 
well in his private as in his public life. There were no bounds to the 
esteem which he deserved and enjoyed. Of conspicuous aliility, learning 



312 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

and diligence, there combined therewith a simplicity, uprightness and 
courtesy, which left nothing to be supplied to inspire and confirm confi- 
dence and respect. It was as natural to love as honor him ; and l)oth 
loved and honored was he by all who had an opportunity of observing his 
unwearied l)enignity or his conduct as a Judge. In that capacitv, wherein 
he labored for forty years in our Supreme Court of Appeals, having pre- 
viously served the State as Governor and Circuit Judge, such was his uni- 
form gentleness, application and abiliti' ; so impartial, patient and just 
was he; of such remarkable clearness of perception and perspicviity, ])re- 
cision and force in stating his convictions, that he was regarded with 
warmer feelings than those of merely official deference. To him is due 
much of the credit which ma3- be claimed for our judicial svsteni and its 
lileratvu-c. It was an occasion of profound regret, when his infirmities of 
age, about two years since, required him to retire from the bench, and 
again are we reminded, by his death, of the irreparable loss sustained by 
the public and the profession." 

The County of Cabell, formed in iSog from Kanawha 
Count V, was named in honor of Governor Cabell. 



LXXXIII. 



JOHN TYLER. 

Govenior. 
December i, i8oS, to January ii, iSii. 

The ancestr}- of John Tyler is said to date from the Nor- 
man Conquest, and he also claimed descent from the brave 
Wat Tyler, so celebrated in English history. His immedi- 
ate progenitor, Henr}- Tyler, first appears in the records of 
Virginia, January 7, 1652, as a patentee of lands in James 
City County, and in 1699 the City of Williamsburg was laid 
off and established upon his land. Henry Tyler died in 
1 7 10, leaving two sons, Francis and John, the latter being 
the grandfather of Governor Tyler. 

John Tyler, the subje(5l of this sketch, was born February 
28, 1747. He was educated at William and Mary College, 
which institution he entered at eight years of age, and hav- 
ing there graduated, he studied law for five years under the 
guidance of Robert Carter Nicholas. Being duly licensed, 
he pradliced his profession for a time in James City, but in 
1772 removed to Charles City County. In 1776, he married 
Mary Armistead, daughter of Robert Armistead. 

John Tyler was the friend and associate of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, George Wythe, and Patrick Henry, and his soul burned 
with the same patriotic fires which kindled theirs. He was 
appointed by the Virginia Convention, July 5, 1776, one of 
the Judges of the High Court of Admiralty, and in 1778 he 
represented Charles City County in the House of Delegates, 
of which bod}' he was Speaker from 17S1 to 1786. In 1780 
he was appointed a member of the Council of State ; in 1786 
was again appointed a Judge of the Court of Admiralty, and 
was consequently a member of the first Court of Appeals of 
the State. He was appointed a Judge of the General Court 

XXI 313 



314 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

in 1788, and served in this capacity until December i, 1808, 
when he was eledled Governor of Virginia. 

This year of 1808 was notable from the fa(5l that the im- 
portation of Africans into the United States ceased by law on 
the ist of January — a circumstance to be remembered, as is 
every step that has been taken by the government upon this 
interesting subjedl, so vitally interwoven with the political, 
industrial, and domestic life of one sedlion of the country. 

As an evidence of the wonderful advance of the United 
States in growth and prosperity, it is stated that in 18 10 the 
number of newspapers printed in the Union was estimated at 
upwards of twenty-two million, and the number of mills for 
manufacturing paper at about 180. These figures are given 
upon unquestionable authority and are an astonishing proof 
of the vigorous life of the new republic. 

Governor Tyler's administration as chief executive of 
Virginia was highly satisfacflory, and in public and private 
he won the warm regard of his associates. He was simple 
in his manners, distinguished for the uprightness and fidelity 
with which he discharged his official duties, and enjoyed in 
an uncommon degree the esteem and confidence of his fellow- 
citizens. 

Upon the expiration of his term as Governor, John Tyler 
was called by the appointment of Mr. Madison to the Judge- 
ship of the Distridl Court of the United States for Virginia, 
which oihce he held until his death, at his seat, " Greenway," 
in Charles City County, January 6, 1813. 

The County of Tyler, formed in 18 14, from Ohio County, 
perpetuates the memor}- of Governor Tyler, which is other- 
wise gratefully cherished in the annals of the Old Dominion, 



LXXXIV. 



JAMES MONROE. 

Goveyjior. 
January' ii, 1811, to November 25, iSii. 

James Monroe became Governor of Virginia for the 
second time, in 181 1, when he was in the same year called 
to a seat as Secretarj- of State in the Cabinet of President 
Madison. An extended sketch of President Monroe's life 
having been alread}' given, we will only allude to the period 
when he was for the second time chief executive in his 
native state. 

The country was at this time sweeping rapidly into a war 
with Great Britain, the extent, duration, and character of 
whose injuries to American rights rendered an appeal to arms 
the only means of redress. 

The report of the Committee on Foreign Relations, made 
November 29, 181 1, will explain the grievances of the 
country, which could only be settled by a resort to "the 
extreme measure." 

After recounting various wrongs and offences on the 
part of England, the report continues: 

"To sum up, in a word, the great cause of complaint against Great 
Britain, your committee need only say, that the United States, as a sover- 
eign and independent power, claim the right to use the ocean, which is 
the common and acknowledged highwa}- of nations, for the purposes of 
transporting, in their own vessels, the prodiicts of their own soils and the 
acquisitions of their own industry to a market in the ports of friendly 
nations, and to bring home, in return, such articles as their necessities or 
convenience may require, always regarding the rights of belligerents as 
defined by the established law of nations. Great Britain, in defiance of 
this incontestable right, captures every American vessel boinid to or 
returning from a port where her commerce is not favored; enslaves our 
seamen, and, in spite of our remonstrances, perseveres in these aggres- 

.•il.5 



316 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

sions. To wrongs so daring in character and so disgraceful in their exe- 
cution, it is impossible that the people of the United States should remain 
indifferent. We must now tamely and quietly submit, or we nuist resist 
by those means which God has placed within our reach. Your committee 
would not cast a shade over the American name by the expression of a 
doubt which branch of this alternative will be embraced. The occasion is 
now presented when the national character, misunderstood and traduced 
for a time by foreign and domestic enemies, should be vindicated. If we 
have not rushed to the field of battle like the nations who are led by the 
mad ambition of a single chief in the avarice of a corrupted court, it has 
not proceeded from the fear of war, but from our love of justice and 
humanity. That proud spirit of liberty and independence which sus- 
tained our fathers in the successful assertion of rights against foreign 
aggression, is not yet sunk. The patriotic fire of the Revolution still lives 
in the American breast with a holy and unextinguishable flame, and will 
condudl this nation to those high destinies which are not less the reward 
of dignified moderation than of exalted valor. Bvit, we have borne with 
injury until forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. The sovereignty and 
independence of these states, purchased and san(5tified by the blood of our 
fathers, from whom we received them, not for ourselves only, but as the 
inheritance of our posterity, are deliberately and systematically violated. 
And the period has arrived when, in the opinion of your committee, it is 
the sacred duty of Congress to call forth the patriotism and resources of 
the country. By the aid of these, and with the blessing of God, we confi- 
dently trust we shall be able to procure that redress which has been sought 
for by justice, by remonstrance, and forbearance, in vain." 

The several state Legislatures began to place the militia 
on a war footing, and Virginia, with the rest, pledged her 
support to the general government, whatever means of 
resistance it should adopt. 

It was in such an hour of anxiety that James Monroe was 
called by the President of the United States to sit in solemn 
council upon the welfare of the nation. Yielding his high 
position as Governor of Virginia, he acknowledged the 
superior claim of obligation to his whole country, and on 
November 25, 181 1, became Secretary of State in the Cabinet 
of President Madison. This office he held until the close of 
President Madison's second term, with the exception of 
about six months, when he discharged the more arduous 
duties of Secretary of the War Department. 

A few years later the Old Dominion, which had already 



JAMES MONROE. 317 

supplied the presidential chair for twenty-four years out of 
twenty-eight, again sent another honored son to fill that lofty 
station. In 1817, James Monroe, whose frankness, generos- 
ity, patient industry, and unsullied honor supplemented his 
acknowledged ability, was eledled fifth President of the 
United States, and in 1821 he was re-eledled without opposi- 
tion. 

Monroe County, now in West Virginia, formed in 1799 
from Greenbrier County, was named in honor of Governor 
Monroe. 



LXXXV. 



GEORGE WILLIAM SMITH. . 

IJciiteiiant-C'rovernor 

and 

A Ring Got 'ernor. 

November 25, iSii, to December 26, iSii. 

Georgk William Smith is believed to have been 
descended from Major Lawrence Smith, of early colonial dis- 
tin(51ion, while his immediate progenitor was Merewether 
vSmith, who was born about the 3^ear 1730, at the family seat, 
"Bathurst," in Essex County, Virginia. 

Merewether Smith was an ardent patriot, and figured as 
such, from 1766 until 1790, in many important stations during 
that eventful period. He married first in 1760, Alice, 
daughter of Philip lyce (third in descent from the emigrant, 
Richard I-,ee), and their son, George William Smith, was 
born at "Bathurst" in 1762. This latter, the subjedl of the 
present sketch, was married February 7, 1793, to Sarah, 
daughter of Colonel Richard Adams, one of the most patri- 
otic and influential citizens of the City of Richmond. 

George William Smith represented the County of Essex 
in the House of Delegates in 1794, after which he entered 
upon a lucrative practice of law in Richmond, taking a high 
rank in his profession. He was eledled from this cit}- to the 
Legislature, from 1802 until 1808, and in 18 10 was appointed 
a member of the State Council. As senior member of that 
bod}^ or Eieutenant-Governor, upon the resignation of Gov- 
ernor James Monroe, he succeeded him, November 25, 181 1 , as 
the chief executive of the state. 

But Governor Smith's term of office was .short, and his 
career painfully ended by the memorable calamity' of the 



\ 



GEORGE WILLIAM SMITH. 319 

burning of the Richmond theatre. This harrowing event 
took place on Thursday night, December 26, 181 1. The 
theatre was crowded with the young, the gay, the fair, 
together with the honored and the influential of the state, 
and the terrible ending of the evening shrouded Richmond 
in mourning. The Governor had reached a place of safety 
outside the burning building, but returning to rescue his 
little son, who had been separated from him by the throng, 
he fell a victim to the sacrificial passion of a parent's love. 
Seventy persons are known to have perished in this horrible 
holocaust, but it was thought that many more were reckoned 
among the fated in that ill-starred audience. 

On the 30th of December intelligence of this tragedy was 
communicated to the Senate of the United States, and a reso- 
lution was adopted that the Senators should wear crape on 
the left arm for a month. A similar resolution was adopted 
in the House of Representatives. 

Monumental (Episcopal) Church was erecfted on the site 
of the theatre in 18 12, and the remains of the unfortunate 
vi<5lims are buried in the portico of the edifice, beneath a 
marble monument inscribed with their names. 



LXXXVI. 

PEYTON RANDOLPH. 

Smior Member' of Cou7icil of State ^ 
and 
Afiiiig Governor. 
December 26, 181 1, to January 3, 1812. 

Upon the untimely death of Governor George William 
vSmith, the duties of the executive chair fell for a season 
upon Peyton Randolph, then the senior member of the Coun- 
cil of State. 

Peyton Randolph was the son of Governor Edmund Ran- 
dolph, and inherited the genius of a distinguished ancestry. 
He graduated at William and Mar}' College in 1798, and 
soon took'an acknowledged prominence in his chosen profes- 
sion of law. 

He presided over the Councils of Virginia for onl}- a 
brief period, as on January 3, 1812, James Barbour, of Orange 
County, was chosen by the General Assembly as Governor. 

In 1 82 1 Peyton Randolph was selecfted as the Reporter of 
the Supreme Court of Virginia, and his labors in this depart- 
ment are embraced in six volumes, entitled, " Report of Cases 
Argued and Determined in the Court of Appeals of Virginia, 
1S21-1828." 

But in the midst of increasing usefulness and brilliant 
prospedls, Peyton Randolph's career was terminated in the 
prime of manhood. A vicflim to pulmonary disease, he passed 
too soon from the arena he had adorned, widely lamented b}- 
man}' to whom his virtues and his talents had endeared him. 

His contribution to the Law Reports of his native state, 
is a permanent memorial of his ability, and constitutes an 
important part of the legal literature of Virginia. 



LXXXVII. 



JAMES BARBOUR. 

Governor. 
January 3, 181 2, to December i, 1814. 

Governor Jame.s Barbour was the son of Thomas 
Barbour, who had been a member of the House of Burgesses 
in 1769, when it issued the first protest against the Stamp 
Adl, and was also, in 1775, a member of the " Committee of 
Public Safety" of Orange County. The father of Thomas 
was James Barbour, who appears as a grantee of lands in 
St. George's parish, Spottsylvania County, June 26, 1731, 
and again in 1733, of lands in St. Mark's parish in the same 
county. He was one of the first vestrymen of this latter 
parish at its organization at Germanna in 1731, and served 
in that office until the division of the parish in 1740, which 
threw him into the new parish of St. Thomas, in Orange 
County, in which division he lived. So that, James Barbour, 
his grandson, and the subjedl of this notice, was born in 
Orange County, June 10, 1775. While very young he served 
as a Deputy-Sheriff, and at the age of nineteen was admitted 
to the bar. His means of education had not been ample, but 
for a time he enjoyed the instrudlion of James Waddell, the 
Ijlind preacher. Perhaps the seed sown in good ground by 
this "mute, inglorious Milton" may have blossomed into 
the virtues and talents which adorned the charadler of James 
Barbour. 

At this point it may be a pardonable digression to lay 
l)efore the reader the beautiful tribute paid to James Waddell, 
by William Wirt, one of Virginia's most gifted .sons : 

"It was one Suiulay, as I travelled through the County of Orange, that 
my eye was caught by a cluster of horses, tied near a ruinous, old, wooden 
house, in the forest, not far from the roadside. Having frecjucntly seen 



822 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

such objects before, in travelling through these states, I had no difficulty 
in understanding that this was a place of religious worship. 

"Devotion alone should have stopped nie to join in the duties of the 
congregation, but I must confess that curiosity to hear the preacher of 
such a wilderness, was not the least of my motives. On entering I was 
struck with his preternatural appearance ; he was a tall and very spare old 
man ; his head, which was covered with a white linen cap, his shrivelled 
hands, and his voice, were all shaking under the influence of a pals}- ; and 
a few moments ascertained to me that he was perfectly blind. 

"The first emotions which touched my breast were those of mingled 
pity and veneration. But ah! sacred God! how soon were all my feelings 
changed ! The lips of Plato were never more worthy of a prognostic 
swarm of bees, than were the lips of this holy man ! It was a day of the 
administration of the sacrament; and his subject, of course, was the pas- 
sion of our Saviour. I had heard the subject handled a thousand times; 
I had thought it exhausted long ago. Little did I suppose, that in the 
wild woods of America, I was to meet with a man whose eloquence would 
give to this topic a new and more sublime pathos than I had ever before 
witnessed. 

"As he descended from tlie pulpit, to distribute the mj'stic symbols, 
there was a peculiar, a more than human, solemnity in his air and manner, 
which made my blood run cold, and my whole frame shiver. 

"He then drew a picti;re of the sufferings of our Saviour; his trial 
before Pilate, his ascent up Calvary, his crucifixion, and his death. I 
knew the whole history, but never, until then, had I heard the circum- 
stances so selected, so arranged, so colored ! It was all new ; and I seemed 
to have heard it for the first time in my life. His enunciation was so 
deliberate, that his voice trembled on every sj'llable ; and everj- heart in 
the assembly trembled in unison. His peculiar phrases had that force of 
description, that the original scene appeared to be, at that moment, acting 
before our eyes. We saw the very faces of the Jews ; the staring, frightful 
distortions of malice and rage. We saw the buffet ; my soul kindled with 
a flame of indignation, and my hands were involuntarily and convulsively 
clinched. 

" But when he came to toiich on the patience, the forgiving meekness 
of our Saviour ; when he drew, to the life, his blessed eyes streaming in 
tears to heaven ; his voice breathing to God a soft and gentle prayer of 
pardon on his enemies, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do ' — the voice of the preacher, which had all along faltered, grew 
fainter and fainter, until his utterance being entirely obstructed by the 
force of his feelings, he raised his handkerchief to his eyes, and burst into 
a loud and irrepressible flood of grief. The effect is inconceivable. The 
whole house resoiinded with the mingled groans, and sobs, and shrieks of 
the congregation. It was some time before the tumult had subsided so far 
as to permit him to proceed. Indeed, judging l)y the usual, lint fallacious 



/.l.V/iS /,'. /A'AVVA'. 323 

standard of my own weakness, I began to he very uneasy for the situation 
of the preacher. For I could not conceive how he would be able to let his 
audience down from the height to which he had wound them, without 
impairing the solemnity and dignity of his subject, or perhaps shocking 
them by the abruptness of the fall. But no ; the descent was as beautiful 
and sublime as the elevation had been rapid and enthusiastic. The first 
sentence with which he broke the awful silence, was a quotation from 
Rousseau, 'Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ like a God.' 

" I despair of giving you any idea of the effect produced by this short 
sentence, unless you could perfectly conceive the whole manner of the 
man, as well as the peculiar crisis in the discourse. Never before did I 
completely understand what Demosthenes meant by laying such stress on 
delivery. Yoii are to bring before you the venerable figure of the preacher ; 
his blindness, constantly recalling to your recollection old Homer, Ossian, 
and Milton, and associating with his performance tlie melancholy grand- 
eur of their geniuses; you are to imagine that you hear his slow, solemn, 
well-accented enunciation, and his voice of affecting, trembling nielod}' ; 
you are to remember the pitch of passion and enthusiasm to which the 
congregation were raised; and then, the few minutes of portentous, 
death-like silence which reigned throughout the house ; the preacher 
removiug his white handkerchief from his aged face (even yet wet from 
the recent torrent of his tears), and slowly stretching forth the palsied 
hand which holds it, l)egins the sentence, ' Socrates died like a philosopher ' 
— then pausing, raising his other hand, pressing them both clasped 
together with warmth and energy- to his breast, lifting his ' sightless balls ' 
to heaven, and pouring his whole soul into his tremulous voice — 'but 
Jesus Christ — like a God ! ' If he had been indeed and in truth an angel 
of light, the effect could scarcely have been more divine. 

" Whatever I had been able to conceive of the sublimity of Massillon,' 
or the force of Bourdaloue, had fallen far short of the power which I felt from 
the delivery of this simple sentence. The blood, which just before had 
rushed in a hurricane upon my brain, and in the violence and agony of 
my feelings had held my whole system in suspense, now ran back into my 
heart, with a sensation which I cannot describe — a kind of shuddering, 
delicious horror. The paroxysm of blended pity and indignation, to which 
I had been transported, subsided into the deepest self-abasement, hitmility, 
and adoration. I had just been lacerated and dissolved by sympathy, for 
our Saviour as a fellow-creature ; but now, with fear and trembling, I 
adored him as 'a God.' 

" If this description give you the impression that this incomparaljle 
minister had anything of shallow, theatrical trick in his manner, it does 
him great injustice. I have never seen, in any other orator, such a union 
of simplicity and majesty. He has not a gesture, an attitude, or an accent, 
to which he does not seem forced by the sentiment which he is expressing. 
His mind is too serious, too earnest, too solicitous, and, at the same time. 



224 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

too dignified, to stoop to artifice. Although as far removed from ostenta- 
tion as a man can be, yet it is clear from the train, the style, and substance 
of his thoughts, that he is not only a very polite scholar, but a man of 
extensive and profound erudition. * ■•" * * * * * 

"This man has been before my imagination almost ever since. A 
thousand times, as I rode along, I dropped the reins of my bridle, stretched 
forth my hand and tried to imitate his quotation from Rousseau ; a thous- 
and times I abandoned the attempt in despair, and felt persuaded that his 
peculiar manner and power arose from an energy of soul, which nature 
could give, but which no human being could justly copy. In short, he 
seems to be altogether a being of a former age, or of a totally different 
nature from the rest of men." 

James Barbour was a member of the Legislature of Vir- 
ginia from 1796 to 1 81 2, and while in the General Assembly 
was elected by it, January 3, 181 2, the Governor of Virginia. 
His administration was specially patriotic and important, 
occurring as it did, during the second war with Great Britain, 
a period calculated to develop the nerve and ability of men 
in authority, and to test the strength of leaders in civil and 
military affairs. James Barbour is said to have pledged his 
personal means to sustain the credit of his state, and by his 
vigilant and able condu(5l of affairs nobly maintained the 
honor of Virginia, who acfted well her part in this second 
struggle with Old England. 

In 18 15 Mr. Barbour was eledled b}- the Virginia Assem- 
bly to the United States Senate, where he served continuously 
for ten j^ears. In this body he took a conspicuous position, 
and was chairman of some most important committees. In 1 825 
he became a member of the Cabinet of President John Quincy 
Adams, and served as Secretary of War until 1S2S, when he 
was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary to Great Britain. His ability, exp^ience, and great 
natural gifts of manner and personal magnetism, rendered 
him peculiarly fitted for this responsible position. In 1829 
he returned to America and retired to the repose of private 
life, not, however, without taking an active interest in the 
political affairs of the country. In the Convention for the 
nomination of President, held at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 
December, 1839, Mr. Barbour presided, and was conspicuous 



JAM-ES BARBOUR. 325 

in his advocacy of the claims of General William Henry 
Harrison, and prominent in the campaign which resulted in 
Harrison's ele(5lion. 

On Ocflober 29, 1792, he married Lucy, daughter of 
Benjamin Johnson, of Orange County, Virginia, and has left 
distinguished descendants. 

Mr. Barbour died at his seat, "Barboursville," on June 7, 
1842, and desired to have only the following words inscribed 
upon his tomb : 

"Here lies James Barbour 

Originator of 

The Literary Fund 

of Virginia. ' ' 

Barbour County, now in West Virginia, formed in 1843 
from the Counties of Harrison, Lewis, and Randolph, also 
perpetuates his name and memory. 



LXXXVIII. 



WILSON GARY NICHOLAS. 

Governor. 
December i, 1814, to December i, 1816. 

The founder of the Nicholas family in A'irginia was 
Dr. George Nicholas, of Lancaster County, England, a sur- 
geon in the British Navy, who settled in the Colony at the 
beginning of the eighteenth century, and married about 1722, 
Elizabeth, widow of Major Nathaniel Burwell, and daughter 
of Robert, known as "King Carter." Their eldest son, 
Robert Carter Nicholas, married in 1754, Anne, daughter of 
Colonel Wilson Gary, and their third son, Wilson Gary 
Nicholas, is the subjecft of this sketch. 

He was born January 31, 1761, in Williamsburg, Virginia, 
and was educated at William and Mary College, which 
institution he left at the age of eighteen years, to ^^nter the 
army. His ability as a soldier met with deserved recognition, 
and he was the commander of Washington's life-guard until 
it was disbanded in 1783, when he settled in Albemarle 
County, on his estate called "Warren." In the same year 
he married Margaret, daughter of John Smith, of Baltimore, 
Maryland. 

The public services of Mr. Nicholas began in 1784, as the 
representative of Albemarle County in the House of Dele- 
gates of Virginia. At the close of the session of 1785, he 
returned to private life, from which retirement he was called 
to represent the County of Albemarle in the State Conven- 
tion of 1788, where he was conspicuous in his advocacy of 
the adoption of the Constitution. He again served in the 
House of Delegates in 1789 and 1790, and from 1794 to 1799, 
when he was eledled to the United States Senate. In this 
latter body he took a distinguished position as a Republican 

•■):i(; 



WILSON CARY NICHOLAS. 327 

leader, and at this highly important period, zealously sup- 
ported all the measures projedled by his party for the good of 
the country. vSeeing most of his wishes in this respedl 
accomplished, he resigned his seat in the Senate in 1804, 
and turned his attention to his own neglecfted private affairs. 
In 1806, he declined a special mission to France, but, in 1807 
he was elecfted to Congress, and again in 1809, was re-elecfted 
to the same position. 

During this exciting and momentous period he took the 
highly patriotic stand of a determined and, if need be, armed 
resistance to the policy of France and Great Britain. In 
December, 18 14, Mr. Nicholas was eledled Governor of Vir- 
ginia, and although the State at that time was passing through 
the great ordeal of a foreign war under peculiarl}^ trying cir- 
cumstances, he did not hesitate to accept the position with its 
unusual weight of care and anxiety. 

The announcement of peace in the following spring light- 
ened his responsibilities, and he at once turned his energie!^ 
to the promotion of matters of internal improvement. In 
every situation. Governor Nicholas showed himself devoted to 
the honor and welfare of his native state, combining with his 
zeal an intimate knowledge of her capacities and her needs. 

In the spring of 18 19, retiring permanently from public 
life, he returned to his country seat, "Warren," but his 
health had been seriously impaired by the fatigue and anxiety 
incident to many positions of responsibility, and his useful 
life was drawing near its close. 

Being advised to try the benefits of a journey on horse- 
back, he set out and reached "Tufton," the residence of his 
son-in-law, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. Here his strength 
failed, and he expired suddenly on 0(5lober 10, 1820. Popu- 
lar and successful, his life was crowned with many honors, 
and he has left the memory of valuable services rendered 
both to his state and to his country. 



LXXXIX. 



JAMES P. PRESTON. 

Governor. 
December i, 1816, to December i, 18 19. 

The Preston family of Virginia was originally from L,on- 
donderry, Ireland, where John Preston, its founder in the 
New World, married Elizabeth Patton, and emigrated to 
Virginia in the summer of 1735. He settled in that portion 
of Orange County from which Augusta County was erected 
in 1738. Elizabeth Patton was the sister of Colonel Patton, 
who was distinguished in the early annals of the Colony as a 
man of property, enterprise, and influence. He, like manj^ 
of the pioneer settlers, fell a victim to Indian warfare and was 
killed at Smithfield, Virginia, in 1753. 

John Preston first settled at "Spring Hill," but in 1743 
he purchased a tract of land near Staunton, and died soon 
after. William, his third child, married Susanna, daughter 
of Francis Smith, of Hanover County, Virginia, a member of 
the House of Burgesses and a prominent patriot in the Amer- 
ican Revolution. 

The eighth child of William and Susanna Preston, viz., 
James Patton Preston, is the subject of this sketch. He was 
born at Smithfield, June 21, 1774, and enjoyed early advan- 
tages of education, being a student at William and Mary 
College from 1790-1795. In 1802 he was eledled to the State 
Senate of Virginia, was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 
i2tli Infantry, United States Army, March 19, 1812, and for 
gallantry was promoted, August 15, 18 13, to the rank of 
Colonel and assigned to the command of the 23d Regiment 
of Infantry. On November 11, 1813, he was severely 
wounded in the thigh, in the battle of Chrystler's Field, from 
which casualty he became a cripple for life. It is a fact 



JAMES P. PRESTON. 329 

worth}- of notice, that when in 1848 Queen Victoria issued 
medals to the surviving soldiers of battles from 1793 to 18 14, 
creating a sort of Legion of Honor, that " Chrystler's Farm " 
found a veteran upon whose breast this token of the hard- 
fought field was hung. But Virginia did not wait to crown 
her gallant son with tardy recognition of his valor. Upon 
the conclusion of peace with (rreat Britain, James Patton 
Preston, in remembrance of his patriotic .services and as a 
tribute to his known ability, was elecfted by the General 
Assembly, Governor of his native state. He ser\-ed in this 
capacity until December i, 1819. It is a matter of interest 
to note, that in the la.st year of Governor Preston's incumbency . 
the law was passed establishing the University of \'irginia in 
Albemarle County, and also that in 18 19 a revision of the 
Code of Virginia was made. 

Subsequent to his gubernatorial service, Mr. Preston 
was for several years postma.ster of the City of Richmond, 
after which he retired to his estate, " Smithfield." in Mont- 
gomery County, where he died May 4, 1843. He married 
Ann Taylor, daughter of Robert Taylor, of Norfolk, and has 
left distinguished descendants : in fact, it is claimed that few 
American families have numbered .so many honored repre- 
sentatives as the Pre.ston family of Virginia, with its collateral 
branches and alliances. 

The County of Preston, now in West Virginia, formed in 
18 1 8 from Monongalia County, perpetuates this eminent name. 



XXII 



xc 



THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH. 

Governor. 
December i, 1819, to December i, 1822. 

Thomas Mann Randolph was the eldest son of Thomas 
Mann and Anne (Cary) Randolph. He was born at " Tuck- 
ahoe," the family seat, in Goochland County, Virginia, in 
the year 1768, and was destined to become a distinguished 
member of an already prominent famil}-, founded in Vir- 
ginia by William Randolph of "Turkey Island." 

Thomas Mann Randolph, having enjoyed the advantages 
of a course of instru(5lion at William and Mary College, had 
the further benefit of completing his education at the Univer- 
sity of Edinburgh, so that he entered upon the grave duties 
of life with an unusual preparation for its responsibilities. 
He married Martha Jefferson, daughter of Thomas Jefferson, 
at Monticello, February 23, 1790, and settled first at "Varina," 
an estate long in possession of the Randolph family, in Henrico 
County, a few miles below Richmond. He served as a mem- 
ber of the Virginia Senate in 1793 and 1794, but removed 
soon after this period to "Edge Hill," Albemarle County, 
where he continued to reside until 1808, when his family 
became domesticated with Mr. Jefferson at Monticello. 

Mr. Randolph represented Virginia in the United States 
Congress from 1803 to 1807, when he withdrew for a time 
from public life and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. 

During the war of 1812, Mr. Randolph's ardent patriotism 
was conspicuous. He raised a command and gallantly par- 
ticipated in the engagements of the sea-board, and was soon 
promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and placed in 
command of the ist Light Corps. On the 20th March, 1813, 
he became Colonel of the 20th United States Infantry, and 

33U 



THOMAS MAXN RAXDOI.PH. 331 

performed valuable service on the Canada line. But his 
highest distinction was yet to come, when on December i, 
1819, he was chosen by the General Assembly as Governor 
of Virginia. This office he filled by annual re-election until 
December i, 1822, when he returned to private pursuits. 
He died at " Monticello," June 20, 1828, aged sixty years. 

Among the matters of general interest occurring during 
the years 1819 to 1822, may be noted the admission of Ala- 
bama territory, as a state, into the Union, and the erection of 
Arkansas territory into a territorial government, b}' an a<fl of 
Congress. During the year 1819 the Supreme Court of the 
United States decided a case of great importance to the 
literary and charitable institutions of our country. Its 
decision was : 

" That the Charter granted by the British Crown to the Trimtees of 
Dartmouth College, in 1769, is a contracl within the meaning of that 
clanse of the Constitution of the United .States which declares that no 
state shall make any law impairing the obligation of contracts; That the 
Charter was not dissolved h\ the Revolution ; and, That an act of the State 
Legislature of New Hampshire, altering the Charter without the consent of 
the Corporation, in a material re.specl, is an act impairing the obligation 
of the Charter, and is unconstitutional and void.'' 

The year 1820 completed the second century since the 
settlement of New England, and the commemoration of the 
landing of the Pilgrim Fathers was celebrated at Plymouth, 
December 22, attended b>- a vast concourse of people. Daniel 
Webster delivered an address with thrilling effect. 

"By ascending," .said the orator, " to an association with our ances- 
tors; by contemplating their example, and studying their characfter; by 
partaking their sentiments, and imbibing their spirit ; by accompanying 
them in their toils, by sj-mpathizing in their sufferings, and rejoicing in 
their successes and their triumphs, we mingle our own existence with 
theirs and seem to belong to their age. We t)ecome their contemporaries, 
live the lives which they lived, endure! wliat they endured, and partake 
in the rewards which they enjoyed." 

By such fervid words can Americans of a later age gather 
strength in the contemplation of the history of their great, 
glorious, and free country. 



333 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

The year 1821 witnessed the inauguration of James Mon- 
roe, of Virginia, as President of the United States for a second 
term. Referring to the progress of the country, he said : 

"Twenty-five years ago, the river Mississippi was shut up, and our 
Western brethren had no outlet for their commerce. What has been the 
progress since that time? The river has not only become the property of 
the United States from its source to the ocean, with all its tributani- 
streams (with the exception of the upper part of the Red River only), but, 
Louisiana, with a fair and liberal boundary, on the western side, and the 
Floridas on the eastern , have been ceded to us. The United States now 
enjoy the complete and uninterrupted sovereignty over the whole terri- 
tory from St. Croix to the Sabine." 

In this year of 182 1 Missouri was admitted as a state into 
the Union, being the eleventh state annexed to the finst 
"Thirteen Confederated States" since the Declaration of 
Independence. 

The year of 1822 is memorable as the date of the incorpo- 
ration of the City of Boston, a place whose historic interest 
reaches as far back as 1630; who.se power today as a com- 
mercial and political centre in a great country is unquestioned, 
and whose influence as a literary capital .stands unrivaled in 
the land. 

In reviewing thus briefly these matters of general interest 
occurring in the United States during Thomas Mann Ran- 
dolph's administration in Virginia, we behold the Old 
Dominion still powerful in the councils of the nation, and 
see one of her chosen sons occupying the highest office in 
the gift of the American people. Perhaps no Act pas.sed 
by the General Assembly of Virginia (when Governor Ran- 
dolph was the chief executive of the state), is of more pres- 
ent interest than the following : 

"AN ACT ceding to the United States tlie lands on Old Point Comfort, 

and the shoal called the Rip Raps. 

"Passed March ist, 182 1. 

"Whereas it is shewn to the present General Assembly, that the gov- 
ernment of the United States is solicitous that certain lands at Old Point 
Comfort, and at the shoal called the Rip Raps, should be, with the right 
of property and entire jurisdidlion thereon, vested in the said United 
States for the purpose of fortification, and other objedls of national defence, 



THOMAS MANN RANDOLPH. 333 

" I. Be it emiiled by the General Assembly, That it shall be lawful 
and proper for the governor of this Cointuonwealth, by conveyance or 
deeds in writing under his hand and the seal of the state, to transfer, 
assign and make over unto the said United States the right of property 
and title, as well as all the jurisdidtion which this Commonwealth pos- 
sesses over the lands and shoal at Old Point Comfort and the Rip Raps ; 
provided, the cession at Old Point Comfort shall not exceed two hundred 
and fifty acres, and the cession of the shoal at the Rip Raps shall not 
exceed fifteen acres ; and provided also, that the said cession shall not be 
construed or taken, so as to prevent the officers of this state from execut- 
ing any process, or discharging any other legal functions, within the jur- 
isdiction or territory herein direc'ted to be ceded, nor to prevent, abolish 
or restrain the right and privilege of fishery hitherto enjoyed and used by 
the citizens of this Commonwealth within the limits aforesaid ; and pro- 
vided further, that nothing in the deed of conveyance, required by the 
first section of this act, shall authorize the discontinuance of the present 
road to the Fort, or in any manner prevent the pilots from eredting such 
marks and beacons as may be deemed necessary. 

" 2. A)ui be it further enaRed, That, should the said United States at 
any time abandon the said lands and shoal, or appropriate them to any 
other purposes than those indicated in the preamble to this act, that, then 
and in that case, the same shall revert to, and revest in this Common 
wealth. 

" 3. This act shall commence and be in force from and after the pass- 
ing thereof. " ' 

Thus, was this historic portion of Virginia territory des- 
tined to become the seat of " Fortress Monroe," one of the 
strongest citadels of national defense in the United States of 
America. 



XCI. 



JAMES PLEASANTS, JR. 

Governor. 

December i, 1822, to December i, 1825. 

John Pleasants, the founder of the Pleasants family in 
Virginia, was a native of Norwich, England, from which 
point he emigrated to the Colony of Virginia, settling in 
Henrico County, in 166S. Here he received large grants of 
land, and established his name as among the earliest and most 
respe(5led of British pioneers. James Pleasants, Jr., the 
subject of this sketch, was one of his most distinguished 
descendants. He was the son of James and Anne Pleasants, 
and was born in 1769. After receiving a good education he 
embraced the profes.sion of law, and entered upon its pra(5tice 
with a zeal and ability that were attended with marked suc- 
cess. The long periods for which he held the public offices 
to which he was subsequently chosen, are the best evidences 
of his popularity. In 1796 he was elecfled to represent 
Goochland County in the ^'irginia House of Delegates, and 
in 1803 he was chosen Clerk of that body. For seven years 
he filled this position most acceptably, when he was ele(5led 
to the United vStates House of Representatives, and here he 
remained until 1819, in faithful and efhcieut service. On 
December t, 1822, he was chosen by the General Assembly 
the Governor of Virginia, and occupied that station by annual 
re-ele(5tion until by the Constitution he was no longer eligible. 

He subsequently .served as a member of the important 
State Con.stitutional Convention of 1829-1S30. 

Although twice appointed to judicial position, he declined 
the honors offered him and retired to Goochland County, 
where on November 9, 1836, he closed a well-spent life. He 

334 



JAMES PLEASANTS, JR. 385 

died universally regretted and greatly esteemed for his many 
public and private virtues. 

Governor Pleasants married Susanna Rose, and their 
worthy descendants are widely connecfted with prominent 
families in the Old Dominion. 



XCII. 



JOHN TYLER. 

Governor. 

December i, 1825, to March, 1827. 

A SECOND time in the history of the Commonwealth of 
Virginia, is a citizen bearing the honored name of John Tyler 
called to the highest office within her gift. John Tyler, 
made Governor in 1825, was the son of Governor John and 
Mary (Armistead) Tyler. He was born at "Greenway," his 
father's seat, in Charles City County, \'irginia, March 29, 
1790. Early in life, he exhibited a taste for books, and 
entering William and Mary College at the age of twelve 
years, he graduated at that institution when seventeen, deliv- 
ering on that occasion an address which w^as pronounced to 
be singularly full of thought and of unusual merit. Leaving 
college, he now devoted himself to the study of law, in which 
he made such rapid progress that at the age of nineteen he 
appeared at the bar of his native county as a pradliciug 
lawyer. His success was now untjualified, and his popularity 
evinced by an early summons to public ofhce. In December, 
181 1, he represented Charles Cit>- County in the House of Del- 
egates, and was re-elecled for five successive }ears. In 18 16 
he was elecfled to the United vStates Congress, and was here 
twice re-ele(5led. Tow^ards the close of the term of 1821, 
ill-health compelled his resignation, and he retired for a brief 
season to his farm, ".Sherwood Forest," in Charles City 
County ; but in 1823 we see him again in the Virginia I^egis- 
lature, taking prominent part in all matters of public interest. 
In 1825 he was ele(5led by the (leneral Assembly Governor of 
Virginia. He was re-elecfted the following year by a unani- 
mous vote, but being ele(5led January iS, 1827, to succeed 
John Randolph in the United States Senate, he resigned the 
office of Governor on the 4th of March following. Thus, 



JOHN TYLER. 837 

step by step, was this distinguished son of Virginia advancing 
to that highest honor which can be conferred upon an Amer- 
ican citizen. Whilst efhciently representing Virginia in the 
United States Senate, Mr. Tyler also was a member of her 
memorable Constitutional Convention of 1829-30. After 
several years of important and exciting service in the United 
States Senate, Mr. Tyler was in 1833 re-eledled to this body 
for six years. In the spring of 1838, Mr. Tyler was eledted 
again to the Virginia I^egislature, and in 1839 was sent a 
delegate to the Convention that met at Harrisburg, Pennsyl- 
vania, to nominate a candidate for President of the United 
States. He was cho.sen Vice-President of the Convention. The 
choice of this body having fallen upon General William Henry 
Harrison for President, Mr. Tyler was chosen Vice-President. 
They were both ele(5led, and were inaugurated March 4, 1841. 
President Harrison dying April 4, after one brief month's ad- 
ministration, Mr. Tyler became President of the ITnited States. 
President Tyler's term was full of interest and impor- 
tance. During this period the valuable territory of Texas 
was annexed to the United States and became an influential 
addition to the Union ; the acft establishing a uniform 
system of proceedings in bankruptcy was passed in August, 
1 84 1, and the protective tariff law created in 1842. During 
the excitement of the Democratic Convention at Baltimore, 
Maryland, assembled to nominate candidates for President 
and Vice-President in 1844, Mr. Tyler was the first choice 
of a large following for the ofhce of President, but he with- 
drew from the contest and retired after many well-spent 
years of public service to the leisure of private life. From 
this repose he was again called by the stirring events of 1861. 
He presided with great dignity over the momentous deliber- 
ations of the Peace Conference, which was proposed by the 
Virginia Legislature at his suggestion, and which met in 
Willard's Hall, at Washington, D. C, February 4. 1861. 
Subsequently he was a member of the first Confederate vStates 
Congress, and died at Richmond, X'irginia, January 17. 1862, 
while holding that office. He was buried in Hollywood 
Cemetery, and was laid to rest in the bosom of his native 
state, deeply and wiiiely mourned. 



XCIII. 



WILLIAM B. GILES. 

Governoi'. 
March, 1827, to March, 1830. 

Wiij.iAM Branch Gilks, an American statesman, de- 
scended from early colonial settlers, was born in Amelia 
Count}', Virginia, August 12,1762. Beginning his education 
at William and Mary College, he pursued his studies at 
Princeton College, New Jersey, from whence he graduated 
with distincflion in 1781. Embracing the profession of law 
he soon obtained a lucrative pra(5lice in Petersburg, Virginia, 
and in August, 1790, his ability for public life was shown by 
his ele(5lion to the United vStates House of Representatives. 
He began his entrance upon politics as a Federalist, but sepa- 
rated himself from his party upon the question of establishing 
a United States Bank, and allied his future fortunes to the 
Democratic standard. In 1798 he declined a seat in Congress 
that he might aid James Madison in the General Assembly of 
X'irginia (where he represented Amelia County), in passing 
the celebrated Resolutions of 1798. In iSoo he was again 
ele(5led to Congress, where he was one of President Jefferson's 
most zealous supporters. 

In 1803 Mr. Giles declined a re-election to Congress, and 
in August. 1804, was ele(5led by the Ivxecutive Council of 
Virginia to the United States Senate, to fill the vacancy 
occasioned by the resignation of Wilson Cary Nicholas. 
Here he took at once the position of Democratic leader, and 
held it until 181 1, when he openl}- manifested his opposition 
to the administration of President Madison. On January 2, 
181 1, he was re-ele(5f;ed to the United States Senate by the 
Virginia Assembly, but resigned his seat, November 23, 1815, 
before completing this term, which did not expire until March 



WlLLlAI\r p.. GILES. 339 

4, 1817. Remaining in retirement from 1815 to 1826, he was 
induced to become a member of the lyCgislature as a delegate 
from Amelia County. In this year he was ele(5led by the 
General Assembly, Governor of Virginia, which ofhce he 
held by annual re-election until 1830. He was a meml)er 
of the State Constitutional Convention of 1829-30, and 
engaged prominently in the absorbing and momentous de- 
bates of that body. He died December 4, 1830, at his seat, 
" The Wigwam." in Amelia County, in the 69th year of his 
age. 

,Mr. Giles married, March 3, 1810, Miss Frances Anne 
Gwynn, and their son, Thomas T. Giles, became a distin- 
guished member of the Richmond Bar; their other children, 
connecfted with various prominent families in Virginia, have 
left able and honorable descendants. 

Giles Count}', Virginia, formed in 1806 from the Counties 
of Monroe and Tazewell, was named in honor of William 
Branch Giles. 



XCIV. 



JOHN FLOYD. 

Governor. 
March, 1830, to March, 1834. 

John Floyd, Governor of Virginia, was born in Jefferson 
County, Virginia, April 24, 1783. He was the son of John 
Floyd, a man conspicuous in the stirring scenes in which he 
lived, and memorable as a surveyor, a legislator, and a sol- 
dier in the interesting annals of Kentucky and Virginia, from 
I 769 to 1783. 

John Floyd, Jr., was educated at Dickenson College, 
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and at the age of twenty-one married, 
in Kentucky, his cousin Letitia, daughter of Colonel William 
Preston. Later, he graduated in medicine at the University 
of Pennsylvania, and settled in Montgomery County, Virginia. 
He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in June. 1807 ; com- 
missioned as Major of Militia in 1808; ser\'ed as surgeon in 
the Virginia Line in 181 2, in the second war with Great 
Britain, and in the same year was elected a member of the 
House of Delegates of Virginia. In 1817 he was eledted to 
the United States House of Representatives, and efficiently 
served in that body until 1829. In 1830 Mr. Floyd was 
ele(5led Governor of Virginia hy the General Assembly, and 
filled this office most acceptably until 1834. His health 
having become very delicate he retired from public life, and 
died suddenly at the vSweet Springs, Montgomery County, 
August 15, 1837. 

In the second year of Governor Floyd's administration as 
chief executive of Virginia, occurred the notable event known 
as the "Southampton Insurrection." This was a futile up- 
rising of a few negroes led on to deeds of blood by a 
master-spirit, whose desire it was to exterminate the white 

34U 



I 



JOHN FLOYD. '341 

race. This tragic event took place in the County of South- 
ampton, south of James River, in the summer of 1831. 
Unlike Gabriel (the negro leader of the servile insurrecflion 
of 1800), who was twenty-four years of age, tall and powerful 
in person, with a grim and repulsive face scarred by fighting, 
the leader of the Southampton Insurrecftion was a negro of 
feeble person, but of great cunning. He passed among his 
people as a prophet, and by his powerful influence over them 
filled them with a thirst for blood. Nat Turner, this swarthy 
leader, attacked his master's house, killed him. his wife, and 
children with the axe, and with his band put to sudden and 
violent death fifty-five whites, almost all of whom were women 
and children. The men of the county, aroused by these 
atrocities, pursued the insurgents, killed many and captured 
others, thirteen of whom were hung with Nat Turner, their 
wicked "prophet." 

These events caused great excitement throughout Vir- 
ginia, but the man at the head of affairs in the Old Dominion 
was read}' for the emergency. It was said of him : " None 
who knew Governor Floyd well could have failed to receive 
the impression that nature had endued him with the qualities 
of the hero, and that the .stage and the opportunity only, were 
wanting to have enabled him to shine among those who daz- 
zled mankind with deeds of chivalry and prowess." He was 
a man of unusually handsome and commanding appearance, 
and in those days of anxiety during the " Southampton Insur- 
rection," the people of Virginia felt that in their Governor 
they possessed a tower of strength — a man whose wisdom 
and valor were equal to anj- emergency. 

He took efficient means to suppress this insurrecffionary 
spirit, but the tragic story of Nat Turner and his murderous 
allies still lends a painful interest to this administration. 

Floyd County, Virginia, formed in 1831 from Montgomery 
County, was named in honor of Governor Floyd, and his record 
is that of a man gifted with the noblest qualities of human 
nature, who finished his course untouched by blame, and died 
as he had lived, the inflexibly upright and devoted patriot. 



xcv. 



LITTLETON WALLER TAZEWELL. 

Governor. 
March, 1834, to April 30, 1836. 

LiTTLKTON Waller Tazkwell. son of Judge Henry 
Tazewell and Dorothea Waller Tazewell, was born December 
17, 1774. The founder of his family was of English origin. 
William Tazewell, lawyer, the first settler in \'irginia. arrived 
in the Colony in 17 15, and made his home in Accomac County. 
His second son, Littleton, was the father of Judge Henry 
Tazewell, in whose honor the County of Tazewell. Virginia 
(formed in 1799 from Russell and Wythe), was named. Lit- 
tleton Waller Tazewell, his son, enjoyed peculiar advantages 
in childhood, having lived with his grandfather. Judge Ben- 
jamin Waller, who superintended his studies and taught him 
English and Latin himself. When Judge Waller was dying 
he committed young Tazewell to the care of his life-long 
friend, the distinguished George Wythe. This threw him 
into very intimate and improving relations with the man who 
presided over the courts which Tazewell attended in later 
years in Richmond. 

Littleton Waller Tazewell graduated at William and Mar}^ 
College, and subsequently studied law, receiving his license 
to pradlice. May 14, 1796. He at once developed great 
ability in his profession. In the spring of 1796 he was 
returned to the House of Delegates from James Cit}- County, 
and continued a member of that body until 1800, when, at the 
age of twenty-five, he was eledled to the United States House 
of Representatives. At the close of his Congressional term, 
Mr. Tazewell returned to his home and entered upon the 
acftive pradlice of his profession in the City of Norfolk, which 

34;; 



LITTLETON WALLER TAZEWELL. 343 

he now made his residence, and where, in 1802, he married 
Anne Stratton, daughter of Colonel John Nivison. 

In 1816, during an absence from home, and without his 
knowledge, Mr. Tazewell was elecfled by the people of Nor- 
folk to the House of Delegates. In 1820, he was one of the 
Commissioners under the Florida treaty, and in 1824, he was 
ele(5led to the United States Senate. Here he took his seat 
in January, 1825, and performed an adtive and conspicuous 
part in senatorial affairs. In 1829 he was re-elected to the 
same high and responsible ofhce, and whilst in attendance on 
the Senate, was elecfted by the Norfolk district a member of 
the Convention which assembled in Richmond, Ocftober 5, 
1829, to revise the first Constitution of Virginia. Here Mr. 
Tazewell made the opening speech and took a leading part in 
that memorable body. In 1829, he was also tendered the 
mission to England, but declined the honor. He continued 
in the Senate until 1833, serving as Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations, and as President /;v? ton. of the 
body during a portion of the twenty-second Congress. In 
January, 1834, he was elected Governor of Virginia, and 
entered upon the duties of this office March 31 ensuing. He 
resigned April },o, 1836, before the expiration of the term, 
upon a disagreement with the State Legislature. That body 
had passed resolutions instru(fting the Senators from Virginia 
to vote for the resolutions to expunge from the journal of the 
Senate the resolutions censuring General Jackson. These 
instructions Governor Tazewell declined to approve, and he 
resigned his office, never afterwards appearing in public ser- 
vice. He is said to have been a very finished speaker, adding 
to consummate logic, the force of an address that was singu- 
larly pleasing and effective. His appearance in youth was 
handsome, in middle age striking, but in his latter days it 
might have been called almost majestic, with his commanding 
stature, his massive features, and hair of silvery whiteness, 
which fell in ringlets about his neck. He died in Norfolk, 
May 6, i860. He was the author of a "Review of the 
Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain 
respecting the commerce between the two countries." 



XCVI. 



WYNDHAM ROBERTSON. 

Lieuirnajit-CJovenio)-. 
April 30, 1836, to March, 1837. 

Wyndha:m Robertson was the grandson of William 
Robertson, who emigrated from Edinburgh, Scotland, in the 
early part of the eighteenth century, and settled in Bristol 
parish near the present location of Petersburg, Virginia. 
The son of this first settler Robertson, William the second, 
was born in 1750, was a vestryman, warden, and deputy of 
Bristol parish from 1779 to 1789, and a member of the Coun- 
cil of Virginia, and its Secretary for many }ears. He married 
Elizabeth Boiling, and Wyndham Rol^ertson, the subjedl of 
this sketch, was their seventh child. 

Wyndham first attended school in his native cit} , Rich- 
mond, and completed his education at William and Mary 
College (under the presidency of the brilliant John Augustine 
Smith,), from whence he graduated in 1821. Sele(5ling the 
profession of law, he was admitted to the bar in 1824, and 
became a popular .speaker and successful pracflitioner. In 
1833 he was ele(5led a member of the Council of State, and 
was prominent in matters of internal improvement in Virginia. 

Being senior member of the Council, and as such, Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, upon the resignation of Governor Tazewell, 
April 30, 1836, Mr. Robertson was called to the Executive 
Chair. The period is very memorable as ushering in those 
initial movements which were the prelude to a great and 
bloody drama. 

Governor Robertson, upon the expiration of his guber- 
natorial term, retired to private life, and as his health had 
become impaired he now followed more .specially the inter- 
esting pursuits of agriculture. But in 1858 he returned to 

344 



WYNDHADI ROBERTSON. 345 

Richmond, and in i860 was eledled to the House of Delegates. 
A friend to peace and the Union, he urged moderation in this 
epoch of excitement, and even after South Carolina and other 
southern states had seceded, he still earnestly advocated a 
refusal on the part of Virginia to follow their example. On 
January 7, 1861, he introduced a Resolution into the House of 
Delegates, known as the Anti-Coercion Resolution, denying 
the existence of present cause for secession, but declaring the 
purpose of Virginia, if a war of coercion was undertaken by the 
Federal Government on the seceded states, to fight with the 
South. The resolution was adopted, and the sequel needs 
no comment here. 

Ever a faithful son to his native state, Governor Robertson 
shared her trials and sorrows along the ' ' via dolorosa " of a 
four years' war, and after the struggle was over he addressed 
himself with ardor to the study of Virginia history. To 
this subjecfl he contributed many interesting articles, among 
the most valuable being a genealogical account of "The 
Descendants of Pocahontas." 



XCVII. 



DAVID CAMPBELL. 

Governor. 
March, 1837, to March, 1840. 

David Campbell was descended from a distinguished 
Scottish family. His father, John Campbell, was one of those 
Justices who, after the County of Washington had been 
formed, in 1776, met at Abingdon, Virginia, and organized 
and held the first County Court, January 28, 1776. In 1778, 
John Campbell married Elizabeth McDonald, and their eldest 
son, David, the subjecfl of this sketch, was born August 2, 
1779, at "Royal Oak," in the valley of the Holstein, about 
one mile west of Marion, the county seat of Smyth County. 
When about eight years of age, his father removed to 
"Hall's Bottom," in Washington County, and here young 
David Campbell received that early education which ever 
forms the groundwork of future charadler. 

Nurtured upon the frontier of Virginia amid scenes that 
developed self-reliance, and among the men who had taken 
part in the establishment of the country, David Campbell in 
his fifteenth year was ready to shoulder his musket and 
assume the duties of a soldier. In 1794, when a mere boy, 
he was appointed an ensign in Captain John Davis's Company 
of Militia, in the 2d Battalion of the 70th Regiment. When, 
in 1799, the 70th Regiment was divided and the 105th formed, 
in the 2d Battalion of this Regiment, David Campbell was 
commissioned as Captain of a company of lyight Infantry 
assigned to it, which company he raised and organized. In 
this same year he married his cousin, Mary Hamilton. He 
now studied law and obtained a license, but never practiced 
his chosen profession, though he employed much time in use- 

346 



DAVID CAMPBELL. 347 

ful reading and enriched his store of information by communion 
with the best authors. In this way he cultivated a naturally 
vigorous mind, and acquired a style for written composition 
which was peculiarly pleasing and forcible. 

Having a taste for military life he gave up the clerkship 
of the County Court of Washington County, which he had 
held from 1802 to 18 12, and on the 6th of July, 181 2, accepted 
a commission as Major in the 12th Infantr3^ United States 
Army. He marched with his command to the lakes of 
Canada in August following, and efficiently served there 
under the command successively of Generals Smyth and 
Van Rensselaer. On 12th March, 18 13, he was promoted to 
the rank of lyieutenant-Colonel of the 20th Regiment, United 
States Army, and participated in the trying campaigns of that 
regiment on the St. Lawrence and towards Lake Champlain. 
The exposure which Colonel Campbell here suffered seriously 
impaired his health, and in consequence, on Januar}- 28, 1814, 
he was compelled to resign his commission. Returning 
home he soon entered the service of Virginia as Aide-de-Camp 
to Governor Barbour, and gave valuable assistance in organ- 
izing the Militia force, called into ser\dce in the neighborhood 
of Richmond and Petersburg, in the summer of 18 14. In 
the session of the Virginia Assembl}' of 1814-15, a law was 
passed for raising 10,000 troops, and under it Colonel Camp- 
bell was ele(5led General of the 3d Brigade. On the 25th 
January, he was appointed Colonel of the 3d Virginia Cavalr}-, 
but was afterwards transferred to the 5th Regiment of Cav- 
alry. Upon his return to Abingdon, Virginia, he again 
entered the clerk's ofhce, where he continued until 1820, 
when he was elecfled to the Senate of Virginia. In 1824, he 
was elected clerk of the County Court of Washington County, 
and held this office until 1836, when he became Governor of 
Virginia. 

A review of the A(5ls of the General Assembly during 
Governor Campbell's administration, will show the great 
strides Virginia was now making in the march of internal 
development — her Railroads, Mining Companies, Manufac- 
tories, Foundries, Banks, and Colleges, all sharing legislative 



348 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

attention and attesting the steady growth of a state whose 
progress, was ever "onward and upward." 

Governor Campbell retired to his home in Abingdon after 
the expiration of his term as Governor ; there he accepted the 
office of Justice of the Peace, which position he filled until 
1852. Declining health now compelled him to withdraw 
from public life, where for nearly half a century he had in 
various capacities served his country. He died March 19, 
1859, bringing to a close a well-spent life, and bearing to the 
grave the veneration and gratitude of his fellow-citizens. 



XCVIII. 

THOMAS WALKER GILMER. 

Govevfior. 
March, 1840, to March, 1841. 

Thomas Walker Gilmer, son of George Gilmer, was 
born at " Gilmerton," his father's seat, in Albemarle County, 
Virginia, April 6, 1802. The founder of the Gilmer family 
in Virginia, Dr. George Gilmer, was a native of Scotland and 
a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. Early in the iSth 
century he migrated to America and settled in Williamsburg, 
Virginia, where for fifty years he successfully combined the 
professions of physician, surgeon, and druggist. He married 
three times, each time into a family of high position, and died 
leaving to his numerous descendants a truly honored name. 
His great-grandson, Thomas Walker Gilmer, began life under 
very favorable auspices, receiving an extensive education from 
tutors and at private .schools. Later he enjoyed the instruc- 
tion and training of two very intellecftual uncles, and when 
he began the study of law his progress was rapid and sub- 
stantial. Entering upon his chosen profession, he was for 
a time allured to the growing West, tempted by the wider field 
there offered to aspiring industry and talent. He remained for 
a season in St. Louis, Missouri, where flattering prospedls 
spread before him, but, finding his presence missed at home, 
he returned to the bosom of his family. In this step he was 
influenced by a noble desire to aid those he loved best, by his 
own personal exertions. He soon took a high position at 
the bar in Charlottesville and in the adjacent counties, and 
became at once prominent in the discussion of the legal and 
political questions of the day. 

During the canvass which resulted in the elecftion of Gen- 
eral Andrew Jackson to his first term as President, Mr. 

349 



350 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Gilmer was one of the editors of the " Virginia Advocate," a 
newspaper published in Charlottesville and devoted to the 
interests of General Jackson. He also contributed to other 
newspapers and acquired a fine reputation as a writer. In 
the spring of 1829 Mr. Gilmer was sent by the County of 
Albemarle to the Virginia House of Delegates, and at the 
expiration of his first term was returned by an increased 
majority to this position. In 1831 Governor John Floyd 
appointed him Commissioner of the State to prosecute the 
Revolutionary claims of Virginia against the United States. 
In the spring of 1832 Mr. Gilmer was again eledted to the 
House of Delegates, and re-eledted thereto in 1833, 1835, and 
1838. His time when not engaged in legislative duties was 
spent in traveling through the United States and contributing 
valuable papers to leading journals upon the various States 
with which he thus became familiar. In 1838 he was 
made Speaker of the House of Delegates, and was re-elecfted 
to this body in 1839. On February 14, 1840, he was eledled 
Governor of Virginia, to take the executive chair on the fol- 
lowing 31st of March. 

- Governor Gilmer entered upon his new duties with the 
zeal natural to him. Being deeply interested in the material 
development of Virginia, he made a careful personal inspec- 
tion of nearly all the important public works of the state. 
This tour gave him the information necessar}^ to an able 
elucidation of the subjecfl which he laid before the General 
Assembly soon after. He had now to meet a complicated 
and irritating question with Governor Seward, of New York, 
relative to the surrender of some men (charged with slave- 
stealing in Virginia) who were fugitives from justice. Gover- 
nor Gilmer demanded their unconditional surrender, deeming 
the refusal to do so a palpable and dangerous violation of the 
Constitution and laws of the United States. (See Resolutions 
of General Assembly of Virginia. Adopted March 17, 1840.) 
But New York did not respond to the demand, and the Leg- 
islature of Virginia receding from its position failed to 
sustain Governor Gilmer. Dissatisfied at this want of har- 
mony and proper co-operation, Governor Gilmer sent in his 



THOMAS WALKER GILMER. 351 

resignation. Feeling ran high in the Legislature, and they 
were unable to ele(5l a successor, so the body adjourned, 
leaving the office of Governor to be filled by the Senior Coun- 
cillor of State, as provided by law. Governor Gilmer was 
thus succeeded, until the 31st of March following, by John 
Mercer Patton. 

Governor Gilmer now offered himself as a candidate for 
Congress from the Albemarle distri(5t, and was eledled by a 
handsome majority, taking his seat in the Congress which 
had been convened by the proclamation of President Harri- 
son, dated March 17th. Mr. Gilmer, in this new field of 
acflivity, labored zealously for reform and retrenchment, and 
was placed at the head of the important Standing Committee 
of Ways and Means. In 1843 he was re-eledled to Congress, 
and on February 15th, 1844, was nominated by President 
Tyler to be Secretary of the Navy. The nomination was 
unanimously confirmed and Mr. Gilmer entered upon the 
discharge of his duties with accustomed industry. But his 
labors were soon terminated by his tragic end in the catas- 
trophe on the steamer Princeton, February, 28, 1844. He 
died in the forty-second year of his age, " stricken down on 
the very harvest-field of his faithful labors, and with the 
sheaves of gathered honors standing thick around him." 
He had married Miss Ann E. Baker, of Staunton, and left to 
mourn his loss four sons and two daughters. 

A handsome portrait of Governor Gilmer is in the State 
Librar}' at Richmond, and a marble slab marks his grave at 
" Mt. Air," Albemarle County, Virginia. 



XCIX. 



JOHN MERCER PATTON. 

Senior Councillor 
mid 

A fling Governor. 
March i8, 1841, to March 31, 1841. 

John Mercer Patton was the son of the worthy Rob- 
ert Patton, a native of Scotland, who emigrated to America 
some time before the Revolution. He settled first in Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, but eventually moved to Fredericks- 
burg, Virginia, where he established himself as a merchant. 
Robert Patton married Anna Gordon, daughter of the distin- 
guished General Hugh Mercer, who fell mortally wounded at 
thebattleof Princeton, January 3, 1777. Theirthird son, John 
Mercer, is the interesting subje(5l of this sketch. He was 
born August 10, 1797, and enjoyed a liberal education. 
Adopting the profession of law, he entered upon its practice 
in his native town, Fredericksburg, and soon acquired an 
enviable distin(5tion at the bar. This being the usual path 
to political preferment, he was in 1830 ele(5led to the United 
States Congress, and continued to serve there with conspicu- 
ous ability until 1838, when he removed to Richmond, and 
was ele(?ted a member of the Council of State. Upon the 
resignation of Governor Gilmer, March 18, 1841, Mr. Patton, 
Senior Councillor, succeeded him as chief executive of 
Virginia until the expiration of his yearly term as Senior 
Councillor on the 31st March following. At that date he 
was succeeded by Senior Councillor John Rutherfoord in this 
highly important office. 

In ability and legal acquirement, Mr. Patton took rank 
among the first minds in his sedlion of country. In 1849 he 

353 



JOHN MERCER PATTON. 358 

assisted in a revision of the Code of Virginia, and his high 
reputation as a lawyer was acknowledged amidst an arraj' of 
talent which has been scarcely surpassed at any period in the 
Old Dominion. 

Mr. Patton died at Richmond, Virginia, Ocftober 28, 1858, 
and his remains were interred in Shockoe Hill Cemeterj' 
there. A handsome fluted column of white marble, emblem- 
atically crowned with several volumes, marks his last resting 
place. He left a large and interesting family to mourn his 
loss and to perpetuate his name and virtues. 



c. 



JOHN RUTHERFOORD. 
Se7iior Coiirictllor 

and 
A fling Governor. 

March, 1841, to March, 1842. 

Thomas Rutherfoord, a native of Kircaldy, Scotland, 
was born in Glasgow, January 9, 1766. Having received 
good educational advantages and a subsequent mercantile 
training, he was entrusted by the firm in whose employment 
he was, with a cargo of goods valued at ^10,000, for dispo- 
sition in Virginia. The young and trusted apprentice set 
sail from Dublin, 0(ftober 10, 1784, furnished with a letter of 
recommendation to General Washington from Sir Kdward 
Neversham, member of Parliament from the County of Dub- 
lin. Thomas Rutherfoord met with deserved success, was 
admitted as a partner with his employers, and soon acquired 
the entire business as merchant, miller, importer, and ex- 
porter. Having at first located in Richmond, he became in 
time one of the largest real estate owners in the city. He 
developed a marked individuality of character and grew to 
be a clear and vigorous writer. His papers on various sub- 
jedls connedled with connnerce and the tariff question were 
considered very exhaustive and met with widespread com- 
mendation. He married Sarah Winston, and left thirteen 
children, among whom was "John," their eldest son, the 
subje(5l of this notice. 

John Rutherfoord was born in Richmond, Virginia, De- 
cember 6, 1792. After a thorough preliminary course at 
school he finished his education at Princeton, New Jersey, 
and adopting the profession of law, entered upon its praiftice 



354 



JOHN RUTHERFOORD. 355 

most successfully. In 1826 he was eledled to the House of 
Delegates from the City of Richmond, and served, with some 
intervals, in that body until 1839, when he was appointed 
one of the Councillors of State, as provided by the amended 
Constitution of 1830. As Senior Councillor, Mr. Ruther- 
foord, on the 31st of March, 1841, succeeded John Mercer 
Patton as Adting Governor of Virginia, and continued to 
serve until March 31, 1842. Governor Rutherfoord continued 
as a member of the State Council until the year 1846. In 
1836 he was elecfted president of the Mutual Assurance Soci- 
ety of Virginia, in which position he served efficiently for 
thirty years. He was also much interested in the volunteer 
military organizations of the state, and was the originator and 
first Captain of the Richmond Fayette Artillery organized 
June 20, 1 82 1. He obtained the rank of Colonel, by which 
title he was familiarly known. 

Governor Rutherfoord married, April 24, 18 16, Emily 
Anne Coles, and left numerous descendants. He died at 
Richmond, Virginia, August 3, 1866, and is buried in 
Shockoe Hill Cemetery, leaving the memory of a man of 
strong intelledt and vigorous character, combined with those 
enduring charms which ever attach to a modest, virtuous, 
unassuming gentleman. 



CI. 



JOHN M. GREGORY. 

Senior Councillor 

and 

ABing Governor. 
March, 1842, to January, 1843. 

John Munford Gregory, the son of John Munford and 
I^etitia Gregory, was born in Charles City County, Virginia, 
July 8, 1804. He was the descendant of early settlers in the 
Colony, and his progenitors had borne honorable part in the 
"War of the Revolution, his grandfather having been killed in 
adlion on the Jersey line, at a place called Quibbleton. 

John Munford Gregory's early education was, after the 
rudiments acquired at an "old field" school, pretty much 
self-education. He taught himself, and learned at the same 
time the important lesson of the dignity of labor. As a farm 
hand he had his toil sweetened by aspirations of a higher 
life, and removing to James City County, began his upward 
course by teaching. He then pursued the study of law, 
and entered William and Mary College, from which institu- 
tion he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of I^aw in 
1830. He was, in the same 5'ear, elecfted the delegate from 
James City County to the Legislature, in which ofhce he 
served continuously until 1841, when he was ele(5led a mem- 
ber of the Council of State. Becoming Senior Councillor, by 
rotation, on March 31, 1842, he succeeded John Rutherfoord 
as A(5ling Governor of Virginia, and continued the chief 
executive of the state until Januar}^ i, 1843, when he was 
succeeded by Governor James McDowell. In accordance 
with an A(5l of the General Assembly, passed December 14, 
1842, the term now for which the Governors of Virginia were 

356 



JOHN M. GREGORY. 357 

eledied began on the first day of January next succeeding 
their elecflion. 

As an instance of Governor Gregory's modesty, it is 
worthy of note that he refused to occupy the gubernatorial 
mansion whilst filling temporarily the executive chair. His 
tenure of office being short he addressed himself rather to the 
a(ftive discharge of his official duties, ignoring the outward 
and visible signs, the "pomp and circumstance " of a Gov- 
ernor's usual surroundings. 

In 1853 John Munford Gregory was appointed United 
States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, which 
position he held until the year i860, when he was eledled 
Judge of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Virginia, serving in 
this capacity until 1866. At this date he was removed from 
office by the Federal authorities, and resuming the pradlice 
of his profession was soon eledled Commonwealth's Attorney 
for Charles City County. This post he held until 1880, when 
feeble health compelled his retirement from acflive labor. 
He removed in 1881 to Williamsburg, Virginia, to enjoy in a 
serene old age the rewards of a virtuous, well-spent life. 
The honors which he had gathered were the recompense of 
natural ability, steadfastness of purpose, and sterling integ- 
rity, than which no nobler combination can be found in all 
that goes to make up — a man. 

Governor Gregory married Miss Amanda Wallace, of 
Petersburg, Virginia, and a large family perpetuates his 
ancient and honorable name. 



CII. 



JAMES Mcdowell. 

Governor. 
January, 1843, to Jaiiuar5% 1S46. 

JamEvS McDowell was born at the family seat, " Cherry 
Grove," Rockbridge County, Virginia, Odlober 11, 1795. 
He was the son of James and Sarah Preston McDowell, and 
was descended from Ephraim McDowell, the founder of this 
distinguished name in Virginia. Having enjoyed peculiar 
advantages in elementary instrudlion, he entered Washington 
College, then attended Yale, and finally completed his edu- 
cation at Princeton, New Jersey, from which college he 
graduated as Master of Arts in 18 16. So pleased was young 
McDowell's father with his son's success at college, that upon 
his return home he presented him with a valuable trad; of 
land, about 2500 acres, in Bourbon County, Kentucky. 

In September, 1818, James McDowell married his cousin, 
Susan Preston, and removed to his plantation in Kentucky, 
but, his father's health failing about this time, he returned 
to Virginia and settled on a farm in the neighborhood of 
Lexington. This, he made his permanent home, and here he 
reared his children. 

In 1 83 1 Mr. McDowell was sent by Rockbridge County to 
the House of Delegates of Virginia, and returned again for 
the session of 1832-3. F'rom this time onward Mr. McDowell 
was continuously in public life, in the service of his state and 
in the National Council. In December, 1842, he was eleded 
by the Legislature, Governor of Virginia, and on the ist of 
January following entered upon the duties of his ofhce. His 
term was conspicuous for the piety and temperance which 
reigned at the gubernatorial mansion. Being an ardent 
Presbyterian and an advocate of the cause of temperance, he 

358- 



JAMES McDowell. 359 

left his impress upon the social world of his day as their zeal- 
ous champion. In every way he upheld the dignity of his 
high and responsible position. Whilst yet Governor of Vir- 
ginia he was eledled to the United States House of Repre- 
sentatives, and served in Congress with marked ability until 
1 85 1, when death closed his adlive, useful, and distinguished 
career. He died at Lexington, August 24, 1851, in the fifty- 
sixth year of his life, leaving nine children to mourn his loss 
and a wide circle of friends to honor his memory. 

Governor McDowell's ability was of a superior order, and 
his grave and moderate course strengthened the influence 
which his intelle(ftual power secured. As a speaker he is 
said to have been eloquent and effe(5tive, and by his high 
and noble bearing he adorned every situation he was called 
upon to fill. 



cm. 

WILLIAM SMITH. 

Goverjwr. 
January i, 1846, to January i, 1849. 

William Smith, son of William and Mary Waugh Smith, 
descended from some of the earliest settlers of Virginia, was 
born September 6, 1797, in King George County. Here he 
received his first instru(5lion in the "old field" schools, 
around which primitive cradles of learning so much romantic 
interest now settles. Later, young Smith enjoyed tuition in 
Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Plainfield, Connedlicut, and 
subsequently was sent to a classical school at " Wingfield," 
Hanover County, Virginia. Adopting the profession of law, 
William Smith obtained his license and qualified in the 
Court of Culpeper County, August, 1819. His ardor and 
ability soon gained for him success, and his taste for politics 
opened a wide field for his ambitious spirit. In 1836 he was 
eledled to the Virginia State Senate, and served through the 
term of four years ; was re-ele(fted, but resigned after serving 
one session. 

Early in Mr. Smith's public career he had been convinced 
of the necessity for improved mail facilities in Virginia and 
the South. In 1827 he obtained from the United States 
government a contracfl for carrying the mails once a week 
from Fairfax Court House to Warrenton, and thence to Cul- 
peper Court House. This contracft was renewed in 1831, and 
led to the establishment, in four years, of a daily four-horse 
post-coach line from Washington City to Milledgeville, 
Georgia. 

In 1 84 1 Mr. Smith was elected to Congress, and served in 
that body until 1843, and in December, 1845, he was eledled 

360 



WILLIAM SMITH. 361 

Governor of Virginia for the term of three years, succeeding 
James McDowell, January i, 1846. 

Among the interesting Adls passed during Governor 
Smith's administration is that of March 13, 1847, viz.: 

" ^^ it cnaRcd by the General Assembly 0/ the Coinmonzvcalth oj 
Virginia, That the territory comprising the County of Alexandria, in the 
District of Columbia, heretofore ceded by this Commonwealth to the 
United States, and by an Act of Congress, approved on the ninth day of 
July, eighteen hundred and forty-six, retroceded to this Commonwealth, 
and by it accepted, is hereby declared to be an integral portion of this 
Commonwealth, and the citizens thereof are hereby declared to be subject 
to all the provisions and entitled to all the benefits, rights, and privileges 
of the Bill of Rights and Constitution of this Commonwealth." 

Governor Smith's term is also to be remembered as the 
period of the war with Mexico and the excited discussion of 
the admission of California as a state into the Union. This 
new country of the golden fleece was drawing men from every 
quarter of the globe, and thither Governor Smith now (1850) 
turned his steps. He engaged at once in the pradlice of his 
profession in San Francisco, w^as returned b}^ that city as its 
delegate to the Constitutional Convention which met at Beni- 
cia in the fall of 1850, and was unanimously elecfled the 
permanent President of that body. In the State Assembly 
which convened soon after. Governor Smith was nominated 
for United States Senator, but was not eledled. In 1852 he 
determined to return to Virginia, bringing a handsome addi- 
tion to his means and increased reputation as the result of a 
two years' residence upon the Pacific slope. In May, 1853, 
Governor Smith was ele(5led to Congress from Virginia, and 
served in this body by successive re-ele(5lion until March 4, 
1861. 

At this period, the late war betw-een the se(5lions was 
approaching, and Governor Smith, though in his sixty- 
fourth year, entered the army in the Southern cause. Offer- 
ing his services to the Governor of Virginia he was commis- 
sioned Colonel and assigned to the command of the 49th 
Regiment of Virginia Infantry. In the autumn of 1861 
Colonel Smith was elecfted to the Confederate States Congress, 

XXIV 



362 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

He attended this body when 'it convened at Richmond in 
P'ebruary, 1862, leaving his Regiment in the command of the 
Lieutenant-Colonel. Upon the adjournment of Congress, 
April 16, he rejoined his command. At the reorganization 
of the Regiment, May ist, he was re-eledled its Colonel, upon 
which he resigned his seat in Congress, participating there- 
after, with his command, in the historic operations on the 
Peninsula, about Yorktown, and later in those near Rich- 
mond. In the battle of Sharpsburg, Maryland, September 17, 
1862, Colonel Smith was severely wounded, but before the 
wounds were healed he returned to the field and took command 
of the 4th Brigade, having been promoted to the rank of Brig- 
adier-General. General Smith now announced himself as a 
candidate for Governor of Virginia, was eledted by a large 
majority, and entered upon his duties as chief executive, Jan- 
uary I, 1864. Early in August, 1863, he had been promoted 
to the rank of Major-General. 

In a later chapter in this work will be recorded some of 
Governor Smith's valuable services in this desperate period 
of Virginia's history. 



CIV. 



JOHN BUCHANAN FLOYD. 

Governor. 
January i, 1849, to January i, 1S52. 

John Buchanan Fi,oyd was the eldest son of Governor 
John and Letitia Preston Floyd, and was born at Smithfield, 
Montgomery (now Pulaski) County, June i, 1806. Receiv- 
ing his early education through private tutors, he entered the 
College of South Carolina, from which institution he graduated 
in 1826. Choosing law as his profession, he was admitted to 
the bar in 1828, and commenced pracftice in his native county. 
In 1836 he removed to Helena, Arkansas, where for three 
years he pra(5liced his profession successfully, but in 1839 he 
determined to return to Virginia and locate in Washington 
County. Being an ardent Democrat and a fluent, impressive 
speaker, Mr. Floyd now became a prominent politician, and 
in 1847 was returned by Washington County to the House of 
Delegates of Virginia, and whilst a member of the Assembly 
was ele(5ted by it Governor of Virginia, to succeed Governor 
William Smith, January i, 1849. 

It is a matter of interest, that Crawford's monument, 
known as the "Washington Monument," which adorns the 
public square around the capitol, in Richmond, was com- 
menced during Governor Floyd's term. This noble work of 
art consi.sts of a bronze equestrian statue of Wa.shington, 
rising from a granite pedestal, surrounded by bronze figures 
of Thomas Nelson, Jr., Andrew Lewis, John Marshall, Pat- 
rick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and George Ma.son. When the 
equestrian .statue arrived in Richmond, Virginia, November, 
1 857 , it was drawn through the streets of the city, from the river- 
landing to the Capitol vSquare, Ijy the enthusiastic citizens. 

The allegorical figures on this monument greatly enhance 

:JC.-5 



364 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

its beauty and its value as an historical compendium of the 
deeds and virtues of many other unrecorded Virginians whose 
memory it honors. The following indicates the position of 
the statuary and the inscriptions on the shields of the allegor- 
ical figures : 

/^/;/««f^, opposite, Thomas Nelson, Jr. a^^^^'^^"" 

Colonial Times, opposite, Andrerv Leivis.-, y ,, p ' 

Justice, opposite, 7(7/% « DIarshall. [ ^^^^ ?ih?f ' 

Revoltition, opposite, Patrick Henry. ] x^ent^tf^'^"'^^" 

Independence, opposite, Thomas Jefferson. | prftJeton^"""^'"'"' 

Bill oj Rights, opposite, George Mason. -| Bunker ^mii^' 

Upon the expiration of Governor Floyd's gubernatorial 
term, he was succeeded by Governor Joseph Johnson, January 
I, 1852. 

In 1855, Governor Floyd was again returned to the House 
of Delegates, by Washington County, and entering adlively 
and efficiently into the political affairs of the day, he became 
a prominent Democratic leader in Virginia. In March, 1857, 
he was appointed by President Buchanan as Secretary of 
War, and applied himself with great diligence to the fulfill- 
ment of the duties of this office. But, as the late, unhappy 
war between the secftions was now drawing on, questions 
arose which induced Governor Floyd to resign his Cabinet 
position and return to his native state. On May 23, 1861, 
he was appointed a Brigadier-General in the Confederate 
States Army. He received later, for his honorable services, 
the commission of Major-General, but constant exposure in 
a(flive military operations had so affedled his health, that he 
was compelled to return home, where he shortly after died, 
on August 26, 1863. 

Governor Flo^^d married in early life his cousin, Sarah 
Buchanan Preston, but left no children. 



cv. 



JOSEPH JOHNSON. 

Governor. 
January i, 1852, to January r, 1856. 

In reviewing the career of Joseph Johnson, the triumph 
of natural ability and lofty charadler over the inauspicious 
circumstances of his early life is very striking. He was born 
in New York, but moved with his family to Harrison County, 
Virginia, at the age of fifteen years. Here he was the sup- 
port of his widowed mother and younger brother, with no 
advantages for learning other than his own self-help. Grad- 
ually his industry and probity won their way, and he became 
first, employee, then manager, and finally the son-in-law of a 
respeiftable farmer in the neighborhood where he lived. In 
the end he purchased the estate of his former patron, and the 
place continued to be his home until the close of his life. 

Mr. Johnson was eminently a self-made man, and his 
education, the result of solitary study by night and a contin- 
uous application of his powers in the search for knowledge. 

In a debating society which he originated in a village 
near his home, he developed ability as a thinker and a speaker, 
but it was as the Captain of a Rifle Company (when the 
Atlantic sea-board was threatened in 18 14, and he with his 
command were ordered to Norfolk) that he first came into 
public notice. From this time on, Mr. Johnson's long and 
a(5live life was replete with gathering honors and usefulness. 
In 1 818 he was elecfted to the Virginia House of Delegates, 
and again in 1822, declining re-eledlion at the expiration of 
this last term. In 1823, he was sent to Congress, and in 
1845, was elecfted to that body for the seventh time. At the 
close of the 29th Congress, in 1847, Mr. Johnson issued an 
address to his con.stituents, thanking them for their past con- 



366 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

fidence, and expressing his wish to retire permanently from 
public life. But the people could not spare him yet, and he 
was returned to the House of Delegates, where he served in 
the session of 1847-48. In 1850 he was ele<fted a member of 
the State Constitutional Convention, and whilst a member of 
that body was chosen by the lyCgislature, Governor of Vir- 
ginia, under the provisions of the then existing Constitution. 
In the fall of 1851, the Constitution which he had helped to 
frame was adopted, and under its articles Mr. Johnson, who 
had been nominated by the Democratic party, was eledled 
Governor, by the popular vote, for the term of four years from 
January i, 1852. This was the first election of a Governor 
of Virginia by the votes of the people. 

Governor Johnson's administration was popular and suc- 
cessful, his attention being specially dire(5led to the internal 
development of the state, and to the establishment of a general 
railroad system throughout Virginia. He justly regarded 
this latter method as the promptest and most efficient means 
to vitalize the abundant resources of the Old Dominion. 

Upon the expiration of his gubernatorial term. Governor 
Johnson finally retired to private life, enjoying in the evening 
of his days, the comforts of a happy home enlivened by his 
family and friends. 

When the period of the late war between the States drew 
on, Mr. Johnson was called upon to give his views to his fel- 
low-citizens. This he did. Always loving the Union, he 
had counselled moderation and patience, bitt when the issue 
came, he advised his people to stand b)^ their secftion. 

Governor Johnson died in the 92d year of his age, on 
February 27, 1877, regretted as a man whose talents, firmness 
of charadler, and unsullied integrity had won in no common 
measure the esteem of his fellowmen. The day after his death 
a public meeting was held at Clarksburg, West Virginia, to 
give expression to the universal sorrow at his loss, to speak 
in glowing terms of his many virtues, and to tell of his pri- 
vate and public worth. 



CVI. 



HENRY ALEXANDER WISE. 

Gover7ior. 

January' i, 1856, to January i, i860. 

Henry Alexander Wise (descended from John Wise, 
who migrated to Virginia from England about the year 
1650, and settled in Northampton County,) was born at 
Drummondtown, Accomac County, Virginia, December 3, 
1806. Left an orphan at a tender age, he was adopted by 
his father's relatives, and in 1822 was sent to college in Penn- 
sylvania, whence he graduated with distin(5lion in 1825. 
Mr. Wise adopted the profession of law, and after an early 
marriage with Miss Ann Eliza Jennings, moved to Nashville, 
Tennessee, where he embarked upon the pradlice of law. In 
1 83 1 he returned to Accomac County, Virginia, and in 1832 
was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at 
Baltimore, Maryland, where he advocated the nomination of 
Jackson as President. In 1833 he was ele(fted to Congress, 
and again in 1835 and 1837. His wife dying in 1837, he 
married, secondly, in November, 1840, Sarah, daughter of 
Honorable John Sargeant, of Philadelphia. In 1842 Presi- 
dent Tyler appointed Mr. Wise, Minister to France, but the 
nomination was rejedled by the Senate. Eater, he was made 
Minister to Brazil, and in that office resided in Rio Janeiro, 
from May, 1844, to Odlober, 1847. Returning to his own 
country he was, in 1850, a member of the Convention which 
revised the Constitution of Virginia. In December, 1854, he 
was nominated hy the Democrats as their candidate for Gov- 
ernor, and ele(5led by upwards of 10,000 majority. 

In 1850 Mr. Wise's second wife died, and in November, 
1853, he married Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. James 
Ej'ons, of Richmond, Virginia. 

3G7 



368 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Governor Wise's gubernatorial term was admirably con- 
du(5led, but the ship of state, which had long been sailing 
tranquilly on, was now about to enter dark and stormy waters. 
The distant territory of Kansas had lately become the battle- 
ground of freedom and slavery, and this conflicfl, in that sec- 
tion, was sought by some to be transferred to Virginia soil. 
John Brown, whose exploits in Kansas had made him already 
notorious, now formed a plan to strike a death-blow to slavery 
in the very heart of a slave-holding state. 

It was towards the close of Governor Wise's administration 
that the seizure of the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, 
was attempted by John Brown and his few associates. The 
final obje(5l of the effort was to free the slaves, but, the 
undertaking failed and Brown met his fate upon the gallows, 
December 2, 1859. This was the opening scene in a great 
drama, whose consummation was at Appomatox Court House, 
in April, 1865. Between these two points of time lies written 
the history of a bloody war. 

Of the Convention which met at Richmond, Virginia, 
February 13, 1861 (to consider the relations of Virginia to 
the Federal Government), Governor Wise was a prominent 
member, and as soon as his State severed her allegiance from 
the central government, Governor Wise offered his services to 
his country in the field of battle. He was at once made 
Brigadier-General in the Confederate Army, and entered 
upon a distinguished career as a soldier. From the begin- 
ning to the close of the four years' war, "Wise's Legion" 
was in a(5live, military service, and won for itself a highly 
honorable record. 

After the close of the war, General Wise engaged in the 
pra(5lice of law in the City of Richmond until his death, which 
occurred on September 14, 1876. He was a man of great 
energy, original and vigorous as a thinker, independent as an 
acftor, and brilliant and persuasive as a speaker ; a man of lofty 
principles and unsullied life, who gathered honors in every de- 
partment of adtivity to which he directed his unusual powers of 
mind and chara(fler. He left several children, but his name 
is also perpetuated in a count}' in Virginia named after him. 



evil. 



JOHN LETCHER. 

Goi'enior. 
Jaiiuar}' i, i860, to January i, 1864. 

John Letcher was born in Lexington, Virginia, March 
29, 1 813, of parents descended from Welsh on the one side, 
and Scotch-Irish on the other; a staunch and sterling stock, 
whose virtues were well developed in the subje<5l of this 
sketch. 

John Letcher was not sent to school in early life, but 
began his career as a son of toil, beneath whose humble garb 
beat a soul eager to acquire knowledge. At the age of fifteen 
years we see him working at the trade of a tailor, studying 
at every leisure hour, and hoarding his hard-earned savings 
to help him to the goal of his ambition. But, not until after he 
was twenty-one did he have the satisfa(5lion of entering college. 
At this period he became a student at Washington College, 
Lexington, and drank deeply of the sources of information 
there laid open to him. Deciding upon the profession of law, 
he applied himself to its study, and entered upon its pradlice 
in 1839, in his native town. His ability and steadfastness 
soon won success, and with success, came friends. He 
establi-shed at this time, at Lexington, " The Valley Star," 
and edited it ably in the advocacy of Democratic principles 
and the cause of education. In his profession he rose rapidly, 
and in the political questions agitating Virginia he took a 
leading part. 

In 1848 Mr. Letcher .served as Presidential Eledlor on the 
Democratic ticket, and when the Convention of 1850 was 
called to remodel the State Constitution, he was returned to 
that body by a large majority, although his distridl was 
strongly Whig. In 1851 he was elected to Congress, and 

3(59 



370 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

continued to serv^e there for four successive terms. It was 
here that, by his rigid adherence to principles of moderation 
in expenditure and fidelity to the best interests of the people, 
he obtained the soubriquet, "Honest John Letcher, the 
watch-dog of the Treasury" — a distincftion which accompa- 
nied him throughout his chequered career. 

Being eledted Governor of Virginia in 1859, he took his 
seat on January i, i860, and became Chief Executive at one 
of the most trying periods of national and state historJ^ 
Waves of angr}- passion were now sweeping over the length 
and breadth of the land, and the cloud of war, at first no 
bigger than a man's hand, was soon to burst in relentless 
fury over the devoted country. 

Perhaps no better resume can be found of the causes 
which led the people of Virginia to sever their ties from the 
Union they had loved so well, than the following, viz. : 

PREAMBLE AND RESOLUTION 

Offered iu a large mass meeting of the people of Botetourt County, Decem- 
ber loth, i860, by the Honorable John J. Allen, President of the Su- 
preme Court of Virginia, and adopted with but two dissenting voices. 

The people of Botetourt County, in general meeting assembled, believe 
it to be the duty of all the citizens of the Commonwealth, in the present 
alarming condition of our country, to give some expression of their opinion 
upon the threatening aspect of public affairs. They deem it unnecessary 
and out of place to avow sentiments of loyalty to the Constitution and 
devotion to the union of these States. A brief reference to the part the 
State has aiSted iu the past will furnish the best evidence of the feelings of 
her sons in regard to the union of the vStatcs and the Constitution, which 
is the sole bond which binds them together. 

In the controversies with the mother country, growing out of the 
efforts of the latter to tax the colonies without their consent, it was Vir- 
ginia who, by the Resolutions against the Stamp A6t, gave the example 
of the first authoritative resistance by a legislative body to the British Gov- 
ernment, and so imparted the first impulse to the Revolution. 

Virginia declared her independence before any of the colonics, and 
gave the first written Constitution to mankind. 

By her instruc^lions her representatives in the General Congress intro- 
duced a Resolution to declare the colonies independent .States, and the 
Declaration itself was written by one of her sons. 

She furnished to the Confederate States the father of his countrj,-. 



JOHN LETCHER. 371 

under whose guidance independence was achieved, and the rights and 
liberties of each State, it was hoped, perpctuallj' established. 

She stood undismayed through the long night of the Revolution, 
breasting the storm of war and pouring out the blood of her sons like water 
on almost every battle-field, from the ramparts of Quebec to the sands of 
Georgia. 

B}' her own unaided efforts the northwestern territory was conquered, 
whereby the Mississippi, instead of the Ohio River, was recognized as the 
boundary of the United States by the treaty of peace. 

To secure harmony, and as an evidence of her estimate of the value of 
the union of the vStates, she ceded to all, for their common 1:)enefit, this 
magnificent region — an empire in itself. 

When the Articles of Confederation were shown to be inadequate to 
secure peace and tranquility at home and respedl abroad, Virginia first 
moved to bring about a more perfect union. At her instance the fiist 
assemblage of commissioners took place at Annapolis, which ultimately 
led to the meeting of the Convention which formed the present Constitu- 
tion. This instrument itself was in a great measure the production of 
one of her sons, who has been justly styled "The father of the Constitu- 
tion." The government created by it was put into operation with her 
Washington, the father of his country, at its head ; her Jefferson, the 
author of the Declaration of Independence, in his cabinet ; her Madison, 
the great advocate of the Constitution, in the legislative hall. 

Under the leading of Virginia statesmen the Revolution of 1798 was 
brought about, Louisiana was acquired, and the second war of indepen- 
dence was waged. 

Throughout the whole progress of the Republic she has never infringed 
on the rights of any state, nor asked or received an exclusive benefit. On 
the contrary, she has been the first to vindicate the equality of all the 
States — the smallest as well as the greatest. 

But, claiming no exclusive benefit for her efforts and sacrifices in the 
common cause, she had a right to look for feelings of fraternity and kind- 
ness for her citizens from the citizens of other States, and equality of 
rights for her citizens with all others ; that those for whom she had done so 
much would abstain from a6lual aggressions upon her soil, or if they could 
not be prevented, would show themselves ready and prompt in pvmishing 
the aggressors ; and that the common government, to the promotion of 
which she contributed so largely for the purpose of " establishing justice 
and insuring domestic tranquility," would not, whilst the forms of the 
Constitution were observed, be so perverted in spirit as to infli(^t wrong 
and injustice, and produce universal insecurity. 

These reasonalile expectations have been grievously disappointed. 
Owing to a s])irit of pliarasaical fanaticism prevailing in the North, in 
reference to the institution of slaver^-, incited by foreign emissaries and 
fostered by corrupt political demagogues, in search of power and place, a 



372 THE (X)VHRNOh'S OF llNdlMA. 

feeling has been aroused between the people of tlie two sedlions of what 
was once a common country, which of itself would almost preclude the 
administration of a united j^overiiment in harmony. 

For the kindly fcelinj^sofa kindred ])eople we find substitute*! distrust, 
suspicion, and mutual aversion. 

For a common ])ridc in the name of American, wc find one se<5tion 
even in foreij^n lands j)ui'suing the other with revilings and reproach. 

F'or the religion of a Divine Redeemer of all, we find a religion of hate 
against a part ; and in all the private relations of life, instead of fraternal 
regard, a " consuming hate," which has but seldom charaiflerized warring 
nations. This feeling has promjAed a hostile incursion upon our own soil, 
and an apotheosis <jf the murderers, who were justly condemned and 
executed. 

It has shown itself in the legislative halls by the jjassage of laws to 
obstruct a law of Congress ]jasscd in pursuance of a jjlain jjrovision of the 
Constitution. 

It has been manifested by the industrious circulation of incendiary 
publications, sancftioned by leading men, occupying the highest stations in 
the gift of the i)eo]jle, to produce discord and division in our midst, and 
incite to midnight murder and every imaginable atrocity against an unof- 
fending community. 

It has disi>layed itself in a ])ersistent denial of the ccjual rights of the 
citizens of each State to settle with their jjnjjjcrty in the common territory 
acquired l)y tlie blood and treasure of all. 

It is shown in their openly avowed determination to circumscribe the 
institution of slavery within the territory of the States now recognizing it, 
the inevitable effect of which would be to fill the present slave-holding 
States with an ever increasing negro jjopulation, resulting in the banish- 
ment of our own non-slavc-holding jjopulation in the first instance, and 
the eventual surrender of our country to a barbarous race, or, what seems 
to be desired, an amalgamation with the African. 

And it has at last culminated in the election, by a secflional majority 
of the free States alone, to the first office in the Republic, of tlie author of 
the sentiment that there is an "irrepressible conflict" between free and 
slave labor, and that there must be universal freedom or universal slavery ; 
a sentiment which inculcates, as a necessity of our situation, warfare 
between the two sections of our country without cessation or intermission 
until the weaker is reduced to subjection. 

In view of this state of things, wc are not inclined to rebuke or censure 
the ]jeople of any of our sister States in the South, suffering from injury, 
goaded by insults, and threatened with such outrages and wrongs, for their 
bold determination to relieve themselves from such injustice and oppres- 
sion, by resorting to their ultimate and sovereign right to dissolve the 
compact which they had formed, and to provide new guards for their 
future security. 



JOHN LETCHER. 373 

Nor have wc any doubt of the right of any State, there being no com- 
mon umpire between co-c(|ual sovereign States, to judge for itself, on its 
own responsibility, as to the mode and measure of redress. 

The States, each for itself, exercised this sovereign power when they 
dissolved their connection with the British Empire. 

They exercised the same power when nine of the States seceded from 
the Confederation and adopted the present Constitution, though two States 
at first rejected it. 

The Articles of Confederation stipulated that those Articles should be 
inviolably observed by every State, and that the I'nion should be perpetual, 
and that no alteration should be made unless agreed to by Congress and 
confirmed by every State. 

Notwithstanding this solemn compact, a portion of the States did, 
without the consent of the others, form a new compadl ; and there is 
nothing to show, or by which it can be shown, that this right has been, or 
can be, diminished so long as the vStates continue sovereign. 

The Confederation was assented to by the Legislature for each State ; 
the Constitution, by the people of each State for such State alone. One is 
as binding as the other, and no more so. 

The Constitution, it is true, established a government, and it operates 
directly on the individual ; the Confederation was a league ojicrating pri- 
marily on the vStates. But each was adopted by the State for itself; in the 
one case by the Legislature acting for the State ; in the other, "by the 
people, not as individuals composing one nation, but as composing the 
distinct and independent States to which they respectively belong." The 
foundation, therefore, on which it was established was yi'rt'r;'«/, and the 
vState, in the exercise of the same sovereign authority by which she ratified 
for herself, may, for herself, abrogate and annul. 

The operation of its ])owers, whilst the State remains in the Confed- 
erac}', is national; and consequently, a State remaining in the Confederacy 
and enjoying its benefits cannot, by any mode of procedure, withdraw its 
citizens from the obligation to obey the Constitution and the laws passed 
in pursuance thereof. 

But, when a State does secede, the Constitution and laws of the United 
States cease to operate therein. No power is conferred on Congress to 
enforce them. Such authority was denied to the Congress in the Conven- 
tion which framed the Constitution, because it would be an act of war of 
nation against nation — not the exercise of the legitimate power of a gov- 
ernment to enforce its laws on those subject to its jurisdiction. 

The assumption of such a power would be the assertion of a prerogative 
claimed by the British Government to legislate for the colonies in all cases 
•whatever ; it would constitute of itself a dangerous attack on the rights of 
the States, and should be promptly repelled. 

These principles, resulting from the nature of our system of Confed- 
erate States, cannot admit of question in Virginia. 



374 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Our people in convention, by their act of ratification, declared and 
made known that the powers granted under the Constitution being derived 
from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them whenever 
they shall be perverted to their injurj' and oppression. 

From what people were these powers derived ? Confessedly from the 
people of each vState, acting for themselves. By whom were they to be 
resumed or taken back ? By the people of the State who were then grant- 
ing them away. Who were to determine whether the powers granted had 
been perverted to their injurj' or oppression? Not the whole people of 
the United States, for there could be no oppression of the whole with their 
own consent ; and it could not have entered into the conception of the 
convention that the powers granted could not be resumed until the oppres- 
sor himself united in such resumption. 

They asserted the right to resume in order to guard the people of Vir- 
ginia, for whom alone the convention could act, against the oppression of 
an irresponsible and sedlional majority, the worst form of oppression with 
which an angry Providence has ever aflBidied humanity. 

Whilst, therefore, we regret that any State should, in a matter of com- 
mon grievance, have determined to adl for herself without consulting with 
her sister States equall}^ aggrieved, we are nevertheless constrained to say 
that the occasion justifies and loud!}' calls for adlion of some kind. 

The elcdtion of a President, by a se(5\ional majority, as the representa- 
tive of the principles referred to, clothed with the patronage and power 
incident to the office, including the authority to appoint all the postmas- 
ters and other officers charged with the execution of the laws of the United 
States, is itself a standing menace to the South — a diredl assault upon her 
institutions — an incentive to robbery and insurredlion, reqiiiring from our 
own immediate local government, in its sovereign character, prompt 
action to obtain additional guarantees for equality and security in the 
Union, or to take measures for protecflion and security without it. 

In view, therefore, of the present condition of our country, and the 
causes of it, we declare almost in the words of our fathers, contained in an 
address of the freeholders of Botetourt, in February, 1775, to the delegates 
from Virginia to the Continental Congress, "That we desire no change in 
our government whilst left to the free enjoyment of our equal privileges 
secured by the Constitution ; but, that should a wicked and tyrannical sec- 
tional majority^ under the sandtion of the forms of the Constitution, per- 
sist in adts of injustice and violence towards us, they only must be answer- 
able for the consequences. 

"That liberty is so strongly impressed upon our hearts that we cannot 
think of parting with it but with our lives; that our duty to God, our 
country, ourselves and our posterity forbids it; we stand, therefore, pre- 
pared for every contingency." 

Resolved, therefore, That in view of the fadts set out in the foregoing 
preamble, it is the opinion of this meeting that a convention of the peo- 



JOHN LETCHER. 375 

pie should be called forlliAvith ; that the vState, in its sovereign characfler, 
should consult Avith the other Southern States, and agree upon such guar- 
antees as in their opinion will secure their equality, tranquility and rights 
within the Union, and in the event of a failure to obtain such guarantees, 
to adopt in concert with the other Southern States, or alone, such meas- 
ures as may seem most expedient to protect the rights and insure the 
safety of the people of Virginia. 

And in the event of a change in our relations to the other vStatcs being 
rendered necessary-, that the convention so elected should recommend to 
the people, for their adoption, such alterations in our vStatc constitution as 
may adapt it to the altered condition of the State and country. 

The following Ordinances of hvo Conventions, held 
upon the soil of Virginia, the one at Richmond, April and 
May, iS6i, and the other at Wheeling, June, 1861, will give 
also some idea of the disorder which was about to shake the 
pillars of the old Commonwealth to their foundations : 

AN ORDINANCE 

To repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United vStates of 
America, by the State of Virginia, and to resume all the rights and 
powers granted under said Constitution. Adopted by the Convention 
of Virginia on April 17th, 1861. Richmond, Virginia. 

The people of Virginia, in their ratification of the Constitution of the 
United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty- 
fifth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and 
eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under the said Con- 
stitution were derived from the people of the United States, and might be 
resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and 
oppression ; and the Federal Government having perverted said powers, not 
only to the injun,- of the people of Virginia, hvA. to the oppression of the 
Southern slaveholding States : 

Now, therefore, we the people of Virginia do declare and ordain, that 
the ordinance adopted by the people of this State in convention on the 
twenty-fifth day of June in the year of our L,ord one thousand seven hun- 
dred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of 
America was ratified, and all acts of the General Assembly of this vState rat- 
ifying or adopting amendments to said Constitution, are hereby repealed 
and abrogated; that the union between the State of Virginia and the other 
States under the Constitution aforesaid is hereby dissolved, and that the 
State of Virginia is in the full possession and exercise of all the rights of 
sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State. 

And they do further declare, that said Constitution of the United States 
of America is no longer binding on any of the citizens of this State. 



h: 



376 THE GOVERNORS OE VIRGINIA. 

This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day, when rati- 
fied by a majority of the votes of the people of this State, cast at a poll to 
be taken thereon on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of a 
schedule hereafter to be enacted. 

Done in convention, in the city of Richmond, on the seventeenth day 
of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
one, and in the eighty-fifth year of the Commonwealth of Virginia. 

A DECLARATION 

Of the people of Virginia represented in Convention at the City of Wheel- 
ing, Thursday, June 13th, 1861. 

The true purpose of all government is to promote the welfare and pro- 
vide for the protection and security of the governed, and when any form 
or organization of government proves inadequate for, or subversive of this 
purpose, it is the right, it is the duty of the latter to alter or abolish it. 
The Bill of Rights of Virginia, framed in 1776, reaffirmed in 1830, and 
again in 185 1, expressly reserves this right to a majority of her people. 
The act of the General Assembly, calling the Convention which assembled 
at Richmond in February last, without the previously expressed consent 
of such majority, was therefore a usurpation ; and the Convention thus 
called has not only abused the powers nominally entrusted to it, but, with 
the connivance and active aid of the executive, has usurped and exercised 
other powers, to the manifest injviry of the people, which, if permitted, 
will inevitably subjedl them to a military despotism. 

The Convention, by its pretended ordinances, has required the people 
of Virginia to separate from and wage war against tlie government of the 
United States, and against the citizens of neighboring States, with whom 
they have heretofore maintained friendly social and business relations: 

It has attempted to subvert the union founded by Washington and his 
co-patriots in the purer days of the Republic, which has conferred unex- 
ampled prosperity upon every class of citizens, and upon every section of 
the country : 

It has attempted to transfer the allegiance of the people to an illegal 
confederacy of rebellious States, and required their submission to its pre- 
tended edicts and decrees : 

It has attempted to place the whole military force and military opera- 
tions of the Commonwealth under the control and direction of such Con- 
federacy, for offensive as well as defensive purposes : 

It has, in conjunction with the State Executive, instituted wherever 
their usurped power extends, a reign of terror, intended to suppress the 
free expression of the will of the people, making elections a mockerv' and 
a fraud : 

The same combination, even before the passage of the pretended 
Ordinance of Secession, instituted war by the seizure and appropriation of 
the property of the Federal Government, and by organizing and mobilizing 



JOHN LETCHER. 377 

armies, with the avowed purpose of capturing or destroying the Capital of 
the Union : 

They have attempted to bring the allegiance of the people of the 
United States into direct conflict with their subordinate allegiance to the 
State, thereby making obedience to their pretended Ordinances, treason 
against the former. 

We, therefore, the delegates here assembled in Convention to devise 
such measures and take such action as the safety and welfare of the loyal 
citizens of Virginia may demand, having maturely considered the prem- 
ises, and viewing with great concern the deplorable condition to which this 
once happy Commonwealth must be reduced unless some regular, adequate 
remedy is speedily adopted, and appealing to the Supreme Ruler of the 
Universe for the rectitude of our intentions, do hereby, in the name and 
on the behalf of the good people of Virginia, solemnly declare, that the 
preservation of their dearest rights and liberties, and their security in per- 
son and property, imperatively demand the re-organization of the govern- 
ment of the Commonwealth, and that all acts of said Convention and 
Executive, tending to separate this Commonwealth from the United States, 
or to levy and carry on war against them, are without authority and void ; 
and that the offices of all who adhere to the said Convention and Executive, 
whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are vacated. 



Governor I,etcher loved the Union deeply, and his voice 
was raised for moderation, conciliation, and for peace; but, 
when Virginia severed her bonds from the government she 
had so largely helped to establish, then her loyal Governor 
stood by her side. Bravely did he fulfill his duty. Every 
energy was devoted to the cause ; and for nearly three years 
he controlled the war policy of the State, and was a strong 
support to the Southern Confederacy. During the war his 
home was burned, but when hostilities had ceased, and the 
white dove of peace had settled on the land, Governor I^etcher, 
emancipated from prison, where he had for several months 
been confined by the Federal authorities, returned to lycxing- 
ton, and sought to build anew his shattered fortunes. In 
1875 he was elecfted to the House of Delegates, and in 1876, 
whilst in attendance upon the Assembly, was suddenly 
stricken with paralysis. He passed peacefully away at Lex- 
ington, January 26th, 1884, closing a valuable life, crowned 
with the love and esteem of his fellow-citizens. A joint 
resolution of respedl to his memory was passed by the 

XXV 



378 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

General Assembly, then in session, from which the following 
is an extradl, viz. : 

"Through a life-time covering the most eventful period in the history 
of Virginia, the great powers of his mind and the warm affections of his 
heart were devoted with constant faithfulness and energy to the service of 
his State and Country. As a representative of Virginia in the Congress of 
the United States, as her Governor in the most trying epoch of her history, 
he won the love and admiration of her people, and a place in that history, 
where his name will live as long as unswerving honesty in the administra- 
tion of public trust and great ability, wisdom and patriotism in the 
discharge of official duty, shall be honored among men." 

He left a widow and seven children to mourn his loss. 
A portrait of Governor L^etcher adorns the State I^ibrary 
at Richmond, Virginia. 



CVIII. 

WILLIAM SMITH. 

Governor. 
January i, 1864, to May 9, 1865. 

We now return to our review of William Smith's life, and 
find him, on January i, 1864, entering for the second time 
upon the administration of civil affairs as Chief Executive of 
Virginia. His experience of adlive life as a soldier up to 
this time had made him familiar with many needs of the 
military service of his country, and these his fertile genius 
now rose to meet. Finding that local defense was indispens- 
able at Richmond, the place being often menaced by the 
enemy, Governor Smith promptly organized two regiments 
of men exempt from duty by reason of disability, age or non- 
age, etc., attaching to each regiment a company of cavalry. 
When the city was threatened afterwards, he assumed the 
command of these troops, and on several occasions they ren- 
dered highly important service. Again Governor Smith 
realized fully, from personal observation, the great necessity 
of supplies for the Southern Army, and by his independent 
and sagacious plans in this behalf, he materially assisted the 
Confederate commissariat. His measures were eminently 
successful, and at the close of the war, the Confederacy was 
indebted to Virginia in the sum of $300,000, for supplies 
obtained through the agency of Governor Smith. 

Upon the evacuation of Richmond, April 3, 1865, Governor 
Smith determined to remove the seat of government to I^yncli- 
burg, Virginia. Three days after his arrival there *General 
Lee surrendered to General Grant. Again attempting to 
follow the fortunes of the Confederacy, he moved yet farther 
south, to Danville, Virginia. Here his hopes were shattered, 

* See Note C. 

879 



380 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

and he returned to his home, surrendered himself to the Fed- 
eral authorities and received his parole. After the war he 
resided in Warrenton, Virginia, and there, for a time, 
enjoyed the serene pleasures of a green old age. He passed 
from the arena of human life in this quiet home, having sur- 
vived his wife, who had been his companion since 1811 ; but 
he left several children to perpetuate the memory of the 
worthy deeds of their distinguished father. 

With the close of Governor Smith's second term, drew 
near, also, the end of the war between the States ; a war that 
did not cease until the battles had numbered 2,261, nor until, 
for four long years, the South had been drenched in blood. 
But, with the end came peace, and only such peace as could 
be bought at such a price ; the peace of calm after storm, of 
consent after confiidl ; the peace of forgetfulness and forgive- 
ness ; the peace which the fathers bought and which the 
sons had only for a season chased from the Ark of their Cove- 
nant — the hallowed American Union. 



CIX. 



FRANCIS H. PIERPOINT. 
Governor. 

May 9, 1865, to April 16, 1868. 

Francis H. Pierpoint, descended from early settlers of 
New York and Central Pennsylvania, who had migrated to 
Virginia, was born January 25th, 1814, in Monongalia 
County, Virginia. His father was a farmer and also con- 
ducfted a tannery, in both of which occupations he was 
assisted by his son, Francis. Young Pierpoint's educational 
advantages were at this time very limited, but in June, 1835, 
he entered Alleghany College, at Meadville, Pennsylvania, 
from whence he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts, in September, 1839. He now taught school until 1841, 
when he removed to Mississippi, still continuing a teacher. 
In 1842 he returned to Virginia, and having studiously 
applied himself, during his hours of leisure, to the acquisi- 
tion of the principles of law, he was now admitted a practi- 
tioner in his chosen profession. From 1848, for a period of 
eight years, he served as the local counsel of the Baltimore 
and Ohio Railroad Company, for the Counties of Marion and 
Taylor. In 1853 he engaged in mining and shipping coal 
by rail, and a little later, in the manufadture of fire bricks. 
He early took an adlive interest in politics, and became 
prominent in his se(5tion as an uncompromising opponent of 
slavery. 

When the Ordinance of Secession was passed, April 17, 
1861, by the State Convention at Richmond, it was ratified 
by the people of Eastern Virginia, whilst the vote in Western 
Virginia was largely against it. In this anomalous attitude 
of affairs, Mr. Pierpoint conceived the idea of a " restored 
government," and at his suggestion a Convention rw viasse 

3K1 



382 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

was held at Wheeling. This led, finally, to the separation 
of West Virginia from the parent State, and the organization 
of an independent State government, upon which was en- 
grafted the intention of the people to maintain the rights of 
the Commonwealth in the Union. Francis H. Pierpoint 
was chosen ' ' Provisional Governor ' ' of this ' ' restored gov- 
ernment," by Convention, and he immediately organized 
twelve Regiments of Militia to serve in the United States 
Army. Subsequently a State Constitution was framed, 
which was ratified by the people of West Virginia, on May 
3, 1862, and Governor Pierpoint was elecfted Governor, to 
fill the remaining portion of the term of Governor lyCtcher, 
as West Virginia, had declared that the fundlions of all offi- 
cers in the State of Virginia who adhered to the Southern 
Confederac}^ were suspended, and the offices vacated. 

West Virginia was admitted as a State into the Union on 
June 20, 1863, and Governor Pierpoint, who had been eledled 
iJ^ yf^ • in the month of May for the term of three, years commencing 
V January i, 1864, now removed the seat of government to 

Alexandria, Virginia. At his request a Convention was 
called to pass an Ordinance of general slave emancipation, 
and this, on February 22, 1864 was consummated in an 
Ordinance abolishing slavery in the State forever. 

On the 25th of May, 1865, Governor Pierpoint removed 
his seat of Government to Richmond, the capital of Virginia. 
Here he addressed himself to the tremendous difficulties of 
the situation, but he clearly had the good of the people at 
heart, and, by every effort and influence, he struggled, and 
not in vain, to mitigate the trials of those by whom he was 
surrounded. He continued in office beyond the period of his 
term, which expired January i, 1868, and held until April 
16, 1868, when he was succeeded by General H. H. Wells, 
appointed Provisional Governor by General John M. Scho- 
field, commanding the Military Department of Virginia. 
Governor Pierpoint now retired to private life. 

As an interesting pi(5ture of political affairs in Virginia at 
this time, the following Resolutions of the General Assembly 
are here quoted : 



FRANCIS H. PIER POINT. 383 

JOINT RESOLUTIONS 

Requesting the President of the United States to grant a general Amnesty 
to the Citizens of Virginia. Adopted December 15, 1S65. 

Whereas, the people of Virginia are invited by the President of the 
United States to unite, at this time, in giving thanks to Almighty God for 
the return of peace and the restoration of the ancient relations between 
the government of the United States and themselves — relations which it is 
desirable should be universal, and without exception of individuals ; and 
whereas, observation and experience have impressed the members of this 
General Assembly with the conviction that the more liberal exercise of 
executive clemency is the surest and speediest me^ns of overcoming 
estrangements and reawakening those sentiments of attachment and devo- 
tion in which a government, based on the consent of the governed, will 
always find its best support and strongest defence : and whereas, in 
the stricken and prostrate condition of this Commonwealth, it is of vital 
importance that all of her citizens (who, from experience in public affairs 
and from the influence they command, are capable of aiding in her resus- 
citation) should be relieved from such disabilities as impair their capacity 
for usefulness : Therefore, 

Be it resolved by the General Assembly, That the President be earn- 
estly reqiiested to grant a general pardon to all citizens of Virginia requir- 
ing executive clemency under existing laws of the United States. ' 

JOINT RESOIvUTlONS 

Approving the Policy of the President of the United States, in reference to 
the Reconstruction of the Union. Adopted February 6, 1866. 

1. Resolved by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the people of 
this Commonwealth, and their representatives here assembled, cordially 
approve the policy pursued by Andrew Johnson, President of the United 
States, in the reorganization of the Union. We accept the result of the 
late contest, and do not desire to renew what has been so conclusively de- 
termined; nor do we mean to permit any one, subject to our control, to 
attempt its renewal, or to violate any of our obligations to the United 
States Government. We mean to co-operate in the wise, firm, and just 
policy adopted by the President, with all the energy and power we can 
devote to that object. 

2. That the above declaration expresses the sentiments and purposes 
of all our people ; and we denounce the efforts of those who represent our 
views and intentions to be different, as cruel and criminal assaults on our 
character and our interests. It is one of the misfortunes of our present 
political condition, that we have among us persons whose interests are 
temporarily promoted by such false representations; but we rely on the 
intelligence and integrity of those who wield the powers of the United 
States Government, for our safeguard against such malign influences. 



384 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

3. That involuntary servitude, except for crime, is abolished, and 
ought not to be re-established ; and that the negro race among us should 
be treated with justice, humanity, and good faith; and every means that 
the wisdom of the Legislature can devise, should be used to make them 
useful and intelligent members of society. 

4. That Virginia will not voluntarily consent to change the adjust- 
ment of political power fixed by the Constitution of the United States; 
and to constrain her to do so in her present prostrate and helpless condi- 
tion, with no voice in the councils of the nation, would be an unjustifiable 
breach of faith ; and that her earnest thanks are due to the President for 
the firm stand he has taken against amendments of the Constitution, 
forced through in the present condition of affairs. 

5. That a committee of eight be appointed, five on the part of this 
House and three on the part of the Senate, whose duty it shall be to pro- 
ceed to Washington City, and present the foregoing resolutions to the Pres- 
ident of the United States. 



This experience in the history of the "Old Dominion," 
may properly be termed "the transition period," when the 
ruin and chaos of unsuccessful War had not yet crystallized 
into the nobler forms of Peace. 



ex. 



HENRY H. WEIvLS. 

Provisional Gover^ior. 
April i6, 1868, to April 21, 1869. 

Henry H. Wells was born in Rochester, New York, 
September 17, 1823. He was educated at the Romeo Acad- 
eni}'- in Michigan, and adopting law as his profession he was 
admitted to the bar in Detroit. Here, he was a successful 
pradlitioner from 1846 to 1861, serving in the Michigan Leg- 
islature from 1854 to 1856. 

Upon the breaking out of the late civil war, Mr. Wells 
entered the volunteer service of the United States Army, and 
rose to the distincftion of Brigadier-General. Having re- 
signed from the army, he located in 1865 in Richmond, 
Virginia, and resumed the pradlice of law. Here he was ap- 
pointed, April 16, 1868, by General John M. Schofield, United 
States Army, commanding the First Military Distridl of Vir- 
ginia, Provisional Governor of Virginia. He held this station 
until April 21, 1869, when he resigned, and Gilbert C. Walker, 
Governor-elecft of the state, by popular vote, was appointed in 
his stead, by General E. R. S. Canby, United States Army, 
then commanding the First Military Distridt of Virginia. 
General Wells was soon after appointed United States Attor- 
ney for the Eastern Distridl of Virginia, which position he 
held until 1872, when he resigned and resumed the pradlice 
of law. In 1875 he removed to Washington City, and in 
September of that year was appointed and entered upon the 
duties of United States Attorney for the Distridl of Columbia. 
He held this post until 1879. 

The period when General Wells was Governor of Virginia 
was an exceptional era in the chequered history of the state ; 

385 



386 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

these were not days of order and administration under settled 
and regular provisions of law enadled by chosen law-makers, 
— but they were days of contest, struggle, and strife, of sus- 
picion and misunderstanding. Notwithstanding all these 
untoward circumstances, the people were not defrauded of 
their just rights or of their property with the knowledge or 
consent of Governor Wells, and especially, were not dis- 
turbed in any way by force or disorder. Their substance 
was not wasted by improvident expenditures, and many 
unrecorded kindnesses were extended to them by their mil- 
itary Governor. Only those who have lived through such an 
ordeal as Virginia then experienced, when 

' ' Hope for a season bade the world farewell , ' ' 

can estimate the terrors of — what might have been. 

But a common, noble past is a strong constituent in Amer- 
ican brotherhood ; and in looking back we feel that the 
memory of the surrender at Yorktown lessened the sting of 
the surrender at Appomatox. The glorious sun of July 4th, 
which for so long had warmed the great national heart, and 
burned into it a love of unity and independence, now touched 
the tear-drops of a Fallen Cause, and turned these emblems 
of a weeping night into the prismatic spectrum of a better/ 



CXI. 



GILBERT C. WALKER. 

Provisional Governor. 

April 21, 1869, to January i, 1870. 

Governor, 

January i, 1870, to January i, 1874. 

GiivBERT CarlETon Walker was born in Binghamton, 
New York, August i, 1832. Enjoying early tuition at Bing- 
hamton Academy, he entered first, Williams College, Massa- 
chusetts, and subsequently Hamilton College, New York, 
graduating from the latter institution in July, 1854. Having 
adopted law as his profession, he was admitted to the bar in 
September, 1855, and commenced pradlice in Oswego, New 
York. He at once entered the arena of politics, serving in 

1858 as a member of the State Democratic Convention. In 

1859 he removed to Chicago, Illinois, continuing the pradlice 
of his profession and participating also in the political ques- 
tions of the day. In 1864 he moved to Virginia and located 
in Norfolk, where he soon became the president of a bank, ' ' The 
Exchange National," and held also, there, other positions of 
honor and trust. Subsequently he removed his residence to 
Richmond, Virginia, and in January, 1869, was ele<fted on 
the Eiberal Republican ticket, Governor of Virginia, by a 
majority of 18,000 votes. On the 21st of April following he 
was appointed by General Canby, Provisional Governor of 
Virginia, to succeed General Henry H. Wells, the State not 
having then been re-admitted into the Union. He thus adled 
until January i, 1870, when he entered upon the regular 
gubernatorial term (under the State Constitution of 1869) of 
four years, to which he had been duly eledled. 

387 



388 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

On January i, 1874, he was succeeded by General James 
lyawson Kemper as Governor. 

In 1875 Governor Walker was eledled to the Forty-fourth 
Congress from the Third Distrid; of Virginia, as a Conserva- 
tive, and served as chairman of the Committee on Education 
and I^abor. In 1877 he was re-eledled to Congress as a Dem- 
ocrat, and served on the Committee on the Revision of the 
lyaws of the United States. 

In 1 88 1 Governor Walker removed to his native place, 
Binghamton, New York, but later, settled in New York City, 
enjoying there a lucrative pracftice. His gifts were many, 
and his prepossessing appearance, his gracious manner, and 
varied acquirements made him an acceptable and persuasive 
speaker before literary and scientific bodies, as well as an 
able debater in the field of law and politics. 

The following Acfls of the General Assembly of Virginia 
occurred during Governor Walker's provisional administra- 
tion. They are a part of the story of Reconstru(5lion days : 

AN ACT 

To ratify the Joint Resolution of Congress, passed June 16, 1866, proposing 
an amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. 
Approved October 8, 1869. 

Whereas, it is provided by the Constitution of the United States of 
America, that Congress may, vi^henever two thirds of both Houses deem it 
necessary, propose amendments to the same, to be ratified by the Legisla- 
tures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions therein, as 
the one or the other mode may be proposed by Congress ; 

And, whereas, by the Congress of the United States, on the sixteenth 
day of June, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, the following 
joint resolution was adopted : 

" Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled (two thirds of both 
Houses concurring). That the following Article be proposed to the Legis- 
latures of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, which, when ratified by three fourths of said Legislatures, 
shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely : 

ARTICLE XIV. 
"Section i. All persons born or naturalized in the United vStates, 
and subject to the jurisdidlion thereof, are citizens of the United States 
and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any 



GILBERT C. WALKER. 389 

law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the 
United States ; nor shall auj' State deprive any person of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its 
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." 

" Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several 
States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number 
of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the 
right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and 
Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the exec- 
utive and judicial officers of a State, or the Members of the Legislature 
thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State being 
twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way 
abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of 
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the num- 
ber of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens 
twenty -one years of age in such State." 

" Section 3. No pereon shall be a Senator, or Representative in Con- 
gress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil 
or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having 
previously taken ail oath as a Member of Congress, or as an officer of the 
United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive 
or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United 
States, shall have engaged in insurre6lion or rebellion against the same, or 
given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof; biit Congress may, by a 
vote of two thirds of each House, remove such disability." 

" Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States 
authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and 
bounties for services in suppressing insurrection and rebellion, shall not 
be questioned ; but neither the United States nor any State shall assume 
or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion 
against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any 
slave ; but all such debts, obligations, or claims, shall be held illegal and 
void. ' ' 

" Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropri- 
ate legislation, the provisions of this Article." 

Therefore, be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That 
the aforesaid amendment to the Constitution of the United States of Amer- 
ica be, and the same is, hereby ratified. 

AN ACT 
To ratify the Joint Resolution of Congress, passed February 27, 1869, pro- 
posing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. 
Approved 06tober 8, 1869. 

Whereas, it is provided by the Constitution of the United vStatcs of 
America, that Congress may, whenever two thirds of both Houses deem it 



390 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

necessary, propose amendments to the same, to be ratified by the Legisla- 
tures of three fourths of the several States, or by conventions therein, as 
the one or the other mode may be proposed by Congress. 

And, whereas, by the Fortieth Congress of the United States, at the 
third session thereof, begun and held at the City of Washington on Mon- 
day the seventh day of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, it 
was 

" Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America, in Congress assembled (two thirds of both Houses con- 
curring). That the following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the 
several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, 
which, when ratified by three fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid as 
part of the Constitution, namely: 

ARTICLE XV. 

"Section i. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

" Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by 
appropriate legislation." 

Therefore, be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That 
the aforesaid amendment to the Constitution of the United States be, and 
the same is, hereby ratified. 

See Note D, Appendix, on " Reconstruction." 



CXII. 



JAMES LAWSON KEMPER. 

Governor. 
January i, 1874, to January i, 1878. 

James Lawson Kemper was descended from one of the 
families which arrived in Virginia from Oldenburg, Germany, 
in April, 17 14. These Germans left their native land for the 
free exercise of their religion, "The Reformed Calvinistic 
Church," and finally settled at a place they called " Ger- 
mantown," about eight miles from what is now, Warrenton, 
in Fauquier County, Virginia. 

Mr. Kemper was born in Madison County, Virginia, in 
1824. After early tuition in primary schools in his native 
county he entered Washington College, from whence he 
graduated with the degree of Master of Arts. Subsequently 
he studied law. In 1847 he was commissioned Captain in 
the volunteer service of the United States, by President 
James K. Polk, and joined General Zachary Taylor's army 
of occupation in Mexico, just after the battle of Buena Vista, 
and thus failed in the desired honor of adlive service in the 
Mexican War. 

Returning to his home in Virginia, Captain Kemper at 
once entered political life, and was sent by his native county 
to represent it in the House of Delegates, where he remained 
for ten years, serving two years as Speaker, and for a long 
period was the Chairman of the Committee on Military af- 
fairs. On the 2d of May, 1861, he was commissioned by the 
Virginia Convention, on the nomination of Governor lyctcher. 
Colonel of Virginia Volunteers, C. S. A., and assigned to the 
command of the 7th Regiment of Infantry, which command 
he assumed at Manassas, Virginia. From this time on, he 
participated in the most sanguinary operations of the war. 



392 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Immediately after the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862, 
where, with his 7th Regiment, he had been in the hottest of 
the fight for nine successive hours, Colonel Kemper was pro- 
moted to the rank of Brigadier-General. Engaging now 
constantly in adlive service in the field, he passed through 
many bloody battles, until at Gettysburg he received a des- 
perate wound. This, for a period, rendered him unfit for 
field duty, but, when partially recovered, he was assigned to 
the important command of the local forces in and around 
Richmond, the oft-beleaguered Capital of the Confederacy. 

On March i, 1864, General Kemper was commissioned 
Major-General. Until the evacuation of Richmond, General 
Kemper remained in command of the forces protecfting that 
city. Upon the close of the war he returned to his home in 
Madison County, and resumed the pradlice of law. In 1873 
he was eledled Governor of Virginia, and assumed the duties 
of this office January i, 1874. His administration was highly 
successful, and the old State turned once more to her Chief 
Executive as to one whom the people delighted to honor. 

Upon the expiration of his term Governor Kemper retired 
to his home in Madison County, carrying the honor and 
affedlion of his grateful fellow-citizens with him. 

The following Resolutions passed by the General Assem- 
bly during the early part of Governor Kemper's administra- 
tion, will show the sentiments then prevalent in the state 
concerning the celebrated Civil Rights Bill : 

JOINT RESOLUTIONS 
Reaffirming the Third Resohition of the Conservative Platform of 1873, 
and Protesting against the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, now pend- 
ing in the Congress of the United States. Agreed to January 5, 1874. 

Resolved by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the sentiments 
embodied in the third resolution of the platform of the Conservative party 
of Virginia in the late ele6tion, ratified as they have been by an unprece- 
dented popular majority, and commended to the favorable consideration 
of the General Assembly by the Governor of Virginia in his inaugural 
message, be, and the same are hereby reaffirmed; and this General Assem- 
bly doth declare, that there is no purpose upon their part, or upon the 
part of the people they represent, to cherish captious hostility to the pres- 
ent administration of the Federal Government, but that they will judge it 



JAMES LAWSON KEMPER. 393 

impartially by its official adls, and will cordially co-operate in every meas- 
ure of the administration which maybe beneficent in its design and calcu- 
lated to promote the welfare of the people and cultivate sentiments of 
good will between the different sedlions of the Union. 

2. That this General Assembly recognize the Foiirteenth Amendment 
to the Constitution of the United States as a part of that instrument, and 
desire in good faith to abide by its provisions as expounded by the 
Supreme Court of the United States. That august tribunal recently held, 
after the most mature consideration, that it is only the privileges and 
immunities of the citizen of the United States that are placed by this 
clause under the prote6lion of the Constitution, and that the privileges and 
immunities of the citizen of the State, "whatever they may be, are not 
intended to have any additional protedlion by this paragraph of the amend- 
ment," and that the "entire domain of the privileges and immunities of 
citizens of the State, as above defined, lay within the constitutional and 
legislative power of the States, and without that of the Federal Govern- 
ment." 

3. That this amendment, thus construed by the highest judicial tri- 
bunal of the countr}-, is the siipreme law of the land — a law for rulers and 
people — and should be obeyed and respe6led by all the co-ordinate depart- 
ments of the government. 

4. That the bill now before Congress, known as the Civil Rights Bill, 
is in violation of this amendment as interpreted by the Supreme Court of 
the United States ; is an infringement on the constitutional and legislative 
powers of the States ; is sectional in its operation, and injurious alike to 
the white and colored population of the Southern States ; and that its en- 
forced application in these States will prove destru6tive of their systems of 
education, arrest the enlightenment of the colored population (in whose im- 
provement the people of Virginia feel a lively interest), produce continual 
irritation between the races, counteraft the pacification and development 
now happily progressing, repel immigration, greatly augment emigration, 
reopen wounds now almost healed, engender new political asperities, and 
paralyze the power and influence of the State Government for duly controll- 
ing and promoting domestic interests and preserving internal harmony. 

5. That the people of Virginia, through their representatives, enter 
their earnest and solemn protest against this bill, and instrudl their Sena- 
tors and request their Representatives in the Congress of the United 
States, firmly, but respedlfully, to oppose its passage, not only for the 
reasons herein expressed, but as a measure calculated to arrest the grow- 
ing sentiments of concord and harmony between the Northern and South- 
ern States of the Union. 

6. That the Governor cause a copy of these resolutions to be forwarded 
to each of our Senators and Representatives in the Congress of the United 
States, with the request that they present the same in their respedlive 
bodies. 

XXVI 



CXIII. 



FREDERICK W. M. HOLLIDAY. 

Governor. 
January i, 1878, to Januar)'- i, 1882. 

Frederick William Mackey Holliday, of staunch 
Scotch-Irish Hneage, is descended diredlly from William Hol- 
liday, who came from the north of Ireland to America with 
his parents, at the age of fourteen. They settled first in 
Pennsylvania, but afterwards located permanently in Win- 
chester, Virginia. Here the family attained prominence and 
influence in the social and business world of that region. 

Mr. Holliday, the subjec5l of this sketch, son of Dr. Richard 
J. M. Holliday, was born in Winchester, Virginia, February 
22, 1828. After enjoying preparatory instru(5lion at the 
Academy of his native place, he entered Yale College, from 
which institution he graduated with distinguished honors in 
1847. Adopting the legal profession, he entered the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, and in one session graduated in law and 
other high branches of education. His gifts as a speaker 
were recognized in his selecftion as "Final Orator" of the 
Jefferson Society, and he returned from college life well pre- 
pared to enter the arena of legal, literary, and political debate. 
Within a year after coming to the bar he was ele(5led Com- 
monwealth's Attorney for the Courts of Winchester and 
County of Frederick, and continued to hold this position by 
successive re-eledlion until the breaking out of the late civil 
war. He went with the first troops to Harper's Ferry, and 
on his return from that historic prelude to the great drama 
about to be enadled, he assumed command of a Company of 
Infantry raised in his native place. Captain Holliday 
devoted himself now to the thorough discipline and drill of 
his company, which, for a time, was employed in detached 

394 



FREDERICK IV. M. HOLLIDAY. 395 

service, but was subsequently assigned to the 33d Virginia 
Infantr}^ "Stonewall Brigade." Captain Holliday, by suc- 
cessive promotion, attained the command of the Regiment. 
He participated in all the encounters in which his command 
was engaged, including the sanguinary battles of McDowell's, 
Winchester, Port Republic, and those around Richmond, 
without being absent from duty for a single day, until August 
9, 1862, when at the battle of Cedar Run, or Slaughter's 
Mountain, he lost his right arm. This injury unfitting him for 
service in the field, he was eledled to the Confederate Congress, 
of which body he remained a member until the close of the war. 

Colonel Holliday now returned to Winchester, and resum- 
ing his former profession took a high rank at the bar. Enjoying 
from this time on, many positions of confidence and honor, he 
was finally ele(5ted Governor of Virginia, and entered upon 
thedutiesof the office January i, 1878. His public acfls during 
his term are chiefl}' expressed in his various state papers, 
and his faithful administration of the affairs of Virginia in a 
season of peculiar trial, reflecfts great credit upon his purity 
as an Executive, and upon his unfaltering devotion to the 
honor and glory of his state. To a sound and broad educa- 
tion he added personal ability of a high order, and the most 
unflinching intellecftual and moral courage. He had an 
exalted standard of public life, and his services in the cause 
of the State debt, rendered at every risk of political advance- 
ment, specially distinguished his course as Governor of Vir- 
ginia. 

Governor Holliday has been twice married, but no chil- 
dren survive by either marriage. Since the expiration of his 
gubernatorial term his time has been chiefly devoted to for- 
eign travel, embellishing thereby a mind already stored with 
unusual literary attainments. 

Among Governor Holliday's published addresses are the 
following : " 

' ' Oration before the Library Compan)?^ and citizens of 
Winchester, Virginia, July 4, 1850." 

" Principle and Pracftice, an address before the Winchester 
Library Company, April 14, 1851," 



396 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

" Oration before the United Fire Department and citizens 
of Winchester, Virginia, July 4, 1851." 

" In Memoriam — General Robert E. Lee — Ceremonies at 
Winchester, Virginia, January 19, 187 1." 

"The Higher Education, the Hope of American Repub- 
licanism, an address before the Society of the Alumni of the 
University of Virginia, June 29, 1876." 

" Welcome Address, Yorktown, Virginia, Ocftober 19, 
1 88 1, by appointment of the Commission of the Congress of 
the United States for the Centennial Celebration." 



CXIV. 



WILLIAM EWAN CAMERON. 

Governor. 
January i, 1882, to January i, 1886. 

WiivUAM EwAN Cameron, son of Walker Anderson 
Cameron and Elizabeth Harrison Walker Cameron, was born 
in Petersburg, Virginia, November 29, 1842. According to 
tradition, the family is descended from the Scottish chieftain 
of the clan Cameron, Sir Ewan Eochiel, whose prowess is cele- 
brated in song as well as history. 

Young Cameron was early thrown upon his own re- 
sources by the death of his parents, and at the age of six- 
teen he went West in pursuit of fortune. Upon the breaking 
out of the late civil war, he left vSt. Eouis, Missouri, and 
returned to his native state. He enlisted as a private in 
Company A, 12th Regiment, Virginia Volunteers. His 
soldierly merit was soon acknowledged, and by successive 
promotions he attained the rank of Brigade Inspe(5tor. He 
served throughout the war, was several times severely 
wounded, and finally surrendered at Appomattox Court 
House, with the rank of Captain. 

From this time, he devoted his talents principally to jour- 
nalism, being connected with the editorial staff of the " Daily 
News," of Petersburg, Virginia, and afterwards with "The 
Index and Appeal," of the same city. He then edited the 
" Norfolk Virginian," but returned to Petersburg and took 
charge of the "Index," which he condu(5led until 1870, when 
he became editor of the " Richmond Whig." In 1872 Captain 
Cameron assumed control of the ' ' Richmond Enquirer, ' ' which 
he conducfled until 1873. In 1876 he was eledled Mayor of 
Petersburg, Virginia, and thus served by four successive 
eledlions, until nominated as Governor of Virginia. In 1881 

3sr 



398 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Captain Cameron was eledled to this responsible office, and 
entered upon its duties January i, 1882, for the period of 
four years. 

Governor Cameron was a vigorous writer and an effe(5tive 
speaker, and as an able Executive his administration was 
highly satisfactory to his constituents. 

Among the A(5ls of the General Assembly, during his 
term, was the abolition of the "whipping-post," a sedlion of 
the ancient criminal code peculiarly obnoxious to evil-doers, 
as well as offensive to the sentiments of advancing civilization. 

This Adl, approved April 21, 1882, says: 

"And be it further enacted, that Section twenty-nine. Chapter ten, 
and Section twelve, Chapter twenty-five of the Criminal Code of eighteen 
hundred and seventy-eight, and all other Acts and parts of Acts, so far as 
they relate to punishment by stripes, be and the same are hereby repealed." 

Also, an A(5t was passed, approved April 21, 1882, giving 
the consent of the State of Virginia for the purchase, by the 
United States, of a tracfl of land at Yorktown, for the purpose 
of the eredtion thereon, by the United States, of a niontiment 
to commemorate the surrender of L,ord Cornwallis and his 
forces, to the allied army commanded by General George 
Washington, in Ocftober, 1781. 



* cxv. 



FITZHUGH LEE. 

Governor. 
January i, 1886, to January i, 1890, 

FiTZHUGH Lee is the third of this distinguished family 
whose name is enrolled upon the list of Virginia's chief 
executives, viz. : Thomas Lee, President of the Council, 
1749; Henry Lee, Governor, 1791, and the subjecfl of this 
sketch, who assumed the duties of this high office, January 
I, 1886. 

Fitzhugh Lee was born at "Clermont," Fairfax County, 
Virginia, November 19, 1835, being the son of Sydney Smith 
Lee and Nannie Mason Lee ; having Governor Henry Lee as 
grandfather on the paternal, and George Mason as great- 
grandfather on the maternal side. 

At the age of sixteen, Fitzhugh Lee was appointed a 
cadet at West Point, from which institution he graduated with 
distindlion, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 
famous old Second Cavalry, of which Albert Sidney Johnston 
was Colonel. Lieutenant Lee soon distinguished himself as 
a disciplinarian, and later, won the admiration of his com- 
rades on the frontier of Texas, by his gallantry in various 
fights with the Indians. He was the Second Lieutenant of 
Kirby Smith's Company, and when that company joined 
the celebrated and successful Wichita expedition under 
Van Dorn, Lee was seledled by Van Dorn as his Adjutant. 
In the battle of May 13, 1859, between six companies of his 
regiment and a large force of Comanche Indians, he was 
chosen to command a picked body that charged on foot the 
thick jungle, in which the Indians had taken refuge. Lieu- 
tenant Lee fell, towards the end of the fight, pierced through 
the lungs with an arrow; he was carried out on the prairie, 

399 



400 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

and borne for 200 miles in a horse litter, and his life for weeks 
was despaired of. 

General Scott, subsequently, in published orders, says: 
"Major Van Dorn notices the conspicuous gallantry and 
energy of Second lyieutenant Fitzhugh lyce. Adjutant of the 
expedition, who was dangerously wounded." On the 15th 
January, i860, he is again mentioned in orders by General 
Scott as having (in command of a portion of his company) 
had another fight with the Indians, in which his rapid pur- 
suit, recovery of stolen property, and personal combat with 
one of the chiefs, are all highly commended. The spirit of 
" lyight-Horse Harry" certainly showed itself now in his 
young grandson. 

In May, i860, Fitzhugh Lee was appointed instructor of 
Cavalry at West Point, a very complimentary detail, and it 
was while fulfilling the duties of this post that the breaking out 
of the late civil war found him. He now resigned his position 
in the United States Army, with pangs known only to the 
truly loyal in a case of divided duty, and was first assigned 
in the Confederate States Army, as Adjutant-General to Gen- 
eral R. S. Ewell. He served here in the first battle of 
Manassas, and after that was made lyieutenant-Colonel of the 
First Virginia Cavalry. From this time on, " Fitz lyce" 
was so identified with the Cavalry of the Army of Northern 
Virginia that it would take a history of this branch of the 
service to narrate his operations. Suffice it to say, that he 
gathered honors as the combat grew, and in May, 1863, 
shortly after the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, we find 
his uncle, the Commanding General, Robert E. Lee, thus 
writing to him : 

" Your admirable conduct, devotion to the cause of your country, and 
devotion to duty, fill me with pleasure. I hope you will soon see her 
efforts for independence crowned with success, and long live to enjoy the 
affection and gratitude of your country." 

In the latter part of 1863, Fitzhugh Lee was placed in 
command of a division of Cavalry, and in the spring of 1865 
he was by order of the Commanding General placed in com- 



FirZHUGH LEE. 401 

mand of the Cavalry Corps of the army of Northern Virginia. 
He was one of the three Corps Commanders who, with General 
R. E. Lee, composed the Council of War just before the sur- 
render. 

After that event. General Fitzhugh Lee retired to his farm 
in Stafford County, Virginia, and accepting the situation of 
defeat, amidst the desolation around, turned his attention 
to the milder arts of peace. 

His hold upon the affe(5lions of the people of Virginia was 
thus deepened, for passing together through this period of 
trial — sharper than the iron hail of battle — they became 
doubly united to him through common suffering and disaster. 
They lost no opportunity to do him honor, and his noble 
desire to ' ' bury the past ' ' strongly appealed to the better 
judgment of those who, with that past, had much to bury. 

At the Yorktown Centennial, General Fitzhugh Lee com- 
manded the Virginia troops, and received an ovation equal 
to that accorded to the President of the United States, 
or anj^ of • the distinguished soldiers and civilians pres- 
ent. 

At the inaugural of President Cleveland, on the 4th 
March, 1885, as General Lee rode up Pennsylvania Avenue, 
Washington, D. C, at the head of the Division he com- 
manded, he was greeted everywhere with cheers and the wav- 
ing of handkerchiefs, and unconsciously evoked an enthu- 
siasm which must have warmed his soldier heart. 

Again, when he served on General Hancock's staff at 
the funeral of General Grant, he met the same fervid and 
flattering greeting.* 

No wonder was it then that this favorite of the people 
was, in 1885, eledted Governor of Virginia. He assumed the 
duties of the office, January i, 1886, and his administration 

* Major Courtland H. Smith (to whom this book is dedicated) as Assistant 
Adjutaat-General, with the rank of Major, serving on the staff of the Brigadier- 
General commanding the First Brigade Virginia Volunteers, was upon the staff 
of General Fitzhugh I.ee at the unveiling of the Yorktown Monument ; the cele- 
bration of the completion of the Washingtcm Monument, at Washington, D. C, and 
at the inauguration of President Cleveland, March 4, 18S5 ; he was also Aide upon Gen- 
eral Hancock's staff at General Grant's funeral — all important and imposing occasions. 

Major Smith was Mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, in 1S79, and in iSiSo funded one 
million dollars of the City's debt. His picture is engraved upon the bonds of the new 
i.ssue. He was prominent in city and state politics, and widely beloved for his noble 
and generous nature. 



403 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

was most successful, giving, as Chief Executive, satisfa(5lion 
as sound and abiding, as had been the glory he had won 
upon the bloody field of battle. 

Among the A(5ls of the General Assembly during Gov- 
ernor Lee's term may be quoted the following, as touching 
an important legal question decided by the Supreme Court of 
the United States, December 5, 1887. (See United States 
Reports, Vol. 123, Page 443. Odlober Term, 1887.) 

JOINT RESOLUTION 

Extending thanks of General; Assembly to R. A. Ayers, Attorney-General, 
and others, for defence of the State, etc. Agreed to December 19, 1887. 

"Resolved (the House of Delegates concurring), That the thanks of 
this General Assembly are extended to the Honorable Rufus A. Ayers. 
Attorney-General of the State ; John Scott, Attorney for the Common- 
wealth of Fauquier County ; and J. B. McCabe, Commonwealth's Attorney 
for the County of Loudoun, for the firm stand assumed by them for having 
the validity tested of the late order of the United States Court for the 
Eastern District of Virginia, made by the Honorable Hugh L. Bond, Judge 
of the Circuit, iining and imprisoning them fpr alleged contempt of Court 
while engaged in the legitimate exercise of their official duties imposed by 
law for the enforcement and collection of the taxes due this Common- 
wealth. 

Resolved, That they are congratulated for the course adopted by 
them, which, although having subjected them to temporary incarceration 
in jail, so far from being a subject of mortification and disgrace, was a 
position of honor and distinction, and they are further to be congratulated 
and held up to approval and endorsement in having brought about a deci- 
sion of the Supreme Court of the United States, which finally settles the 
question of the power and authority of the Federal Judiciary over the 
States of this Union, jn accordance with the Constitution of the United 
States and the laws of the land. 

Resolved, That the Governor of this Commonwealth be requested to 
communicate the passage of the above Resolutions to the State officials 
above named, and cause a copy to be transmitted to them with such 
remarks as he may deem pertinent." 

General Fitzhugh L,ee married Miss Ellen Fowle, of Alex- 
andria, Virginia, and has a large- and interesting family. 



CXVI. 



PHILIP W. McICINNEY. 

Governor. 
January i, 1890, to January i, 1894. 

PHI1.IP W. McKiNNEY, son of Charles and Martha Guar- 
rant McKinney, was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, 
March 17, 1832. His early school daj-s were passed in his 
native county, but his higher education was pursued first at 
Hampden Sidney College, whence he graduated with dis- 
tincflion ; and later, at Washington and lyce Universit}^, 
where he made the study of law a specialty. After leaving 
the Universit}', he entered immediately upon the pradlice of 
his profession. 

In April, 1861, he entered the Confedera^te States Army 
as Captain of Company K, 4th Virginia Cavalry, and was 
with that regiment in all of its gallant ser\dce, until incapaci- 
tated for the field by wounds received in 1863, at Brand}^ 
Station, Virginia. After this he performed local duty for a 
year at Danville, and then took his seat as a member of the 
General Assembly of Virginia, where he served until the close 
of the war. Since that time he has been one of the most prom- 
inent members of the bar in Virginia. He has filled the office 
of prosecuting attorney for several terms, has been three times 
eledtor on the Democratic Presidential ticket for the fourth 
distridl in Virginia; was eledlor at large in 1884; in 1881 
was the Democratic nominee for Attorney-General, and in 
1885 was a candidate for nomination for Governor of Vir- 
ginia, receiving among the several candidates the next high- 
est vote to that by which Governor Lee was nominated. 

In 1889, Mr. McKinney was eledled Governor of Virginia 
for the term of four years, beginning January i, 1890. 

Governor McKinney has been twice married, and has two 

•103 



404 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

children. His first wife, Miss Nannie Christian, died leav- 
ing one son, Robert C, when Mr. McKinney married, sec- 
ondly. Miss Annie Lj^le, of Farmville, Virginia. 

Governor McKinney's period of administration has been 
of special interest in the history of the Commonwealth, em- 
bracing as it does the settlement of the question of the state 
debt — a question which for several years had agitated the 
public mind in Virginia to a very serious extent. 

In developing the internal resources of the state, Virginia, 
as far back as 1820, resorted to the policy of building her 
canals, railroads, and turnpikes with money borrowed upon 
her own credit. For this, she in return issued her bonds, 
promising to pay six per cent, per annum until the principal 
was returned. Virginia kept her promise faithfully until the 
outbreak of the late civil war, when she, whose word was her 
bond and whose bond w^as as good as gold, became hemmed 
in by a circle of fire from the outer world, and was the prey 
of the devastation and rapine of war within her borders. 
Her creditors at the North and in Europe beheld her torn and 
bleeding, but they awaited the hour when, true to herself, 
she would redeem her pledges. 

To complicate the issue, the territory of Virginia had 
during the war been dismembered, and fully one third of her 
fair domain erected into a separate state, known as West 
Virginia. This portion of the state had participated in bor- 
rowing the money and in sharing the benefits with which 
Virginia was charged, and it seemed but reasonable that 
(though subsequently in altered relations to the Union) 
West Virginia's adlual and honorable indebtedness should 
be unchanged to the creditors of Virginia. 

At an extra session of the General Assembly, held at the 
City of Wheeling, July ist, 1861, an Adl was passed, July 
26, 1861, authorizing the executive to borrow money on the 
credit of the state, and "as security for any such loan or 
loans, certificates of debt or bonds of the state, irredeemable 
for any period not greater than thirty-four years, may be 
issued, and the revenue and property of the state, or any part' 
of either, ma}^ be pledged for their redemption." This is 



PHILIP W. Mc KINNEY. 405 

ample evidence of the participation of this portion of Vir- 
ginia in borrowing money upon state credit. 

In 187 1, the principal of the debt of Virginia, with its 
unpaid and overdue interest, amounted to thesum of about 
$45,000,000. 

Of the legislation, litigation, and political divisions in the 
state growing out of the settlement of this debt, time fails to 
tell, but its final adjustment was accomplished during the 
administration of Governor McKinney, as will be seen by the 
following, viz.: 

AN ACT 

To provide for the settlcmeut of the public debt of Virginia not funded 
under the provisions of an A61 entitled "An A61 to ascertain and 
declare Virginia's equitable share of the debt created before and adlu- 
ally existing at the time of the partition of her territory and resources, 
and to provide for the issuance of bonds covering the same, and the 
regular and prompt payment of the interest thereon," approved Feb- 
ruary 14, 1882. 

Approved February 20, 1892. 
Whereas, b}^ a joint resolution of the General Assembly of the State 
of Virginia, adopted on the third day of March, eighteen hundred and 
ninety, a commission was appointed on the part of Virginia to receive 
propositions for funding the debt of the State not funded under the Adl 
known as the " Riddleberger Bill," approved February fourteenth, eight- 
een hundred and eighty-two, from a properly constituted representative of 
her creditors ; and 

Whereas, said Virginia Debt Commission has submitted a report to 
the General Assembly, wherein it appears that under a, certain agreement, 
dated May twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety, lodged with the Central 
Trust Company of New York, Frederick P. Olcott, William L,. Bull, Henry 
Budge, Charles D. Dickey, Jr., Hugh R. Garden, and John Gill, consti- 
tuting a committee for certain of the creditors of Virginia, called the 
"Bondholders' Conunittee," have proposed to said commission to sur- 
render to the State in bulk not less than twenty-three million of dollars 
of the public debt, unfunded under said A(5l approved February fourteenth, 
eighteen hundred and eighty-two, in exchange for an issue of new bonds, 
as hereinafter specified, the same to be apportioned between the several 
classes of creditors by a tribunal which the said creditors have themselves 
appointed ; and that, in pursuance of said proposal, an agreement has 
been entered into unanimously between the said commission and the said 
bondholders' committee, subject to approval by the General Assembly, 
whereby in exchange for the said unsettled obligations of the State held 
by the public, which were issued prior to February fourteenth, eighteen 



406 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

hundred and cightj'-two (exclusive of evidences of delA held by the piiblic 
institutious of the Commonwealth pursuant to law and by the United 
States), together with the interest thereon to July first, eighteen hundred 
and ninety-one, inclusive, aggregating about twenty-eight million of dol- 
lars, there shall be issued nineteen million of dollars of new bonds, dated 
July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and maturing one hundred 
years from said date, with interest thereon at the rate of two per centum 
per annum for ten years from said first day of Jul}', eighteen hundred and 
ninety-one, and three per centvrm per annum for ninety years thereafter 
to the date of maturity, said interest to be paj^able semi-annually ; of 
which aggregate debt of about twenty-eight million of dollars the said 
bondholders' committee represent that they now hold and agree to sur- 
render not less than twenty-three million of dollars ; and 

Whereas, said report and agreement contemplate the surrender of the 
obligations held b}' the bondholders' committee as an entirety, and do not 
contemplate an apportionment b}- the General Assembly between the 
various classes of creditors so represented by said bondholders' committee, 
the same having been committed to a distributing tribunal, as hereinbe- 
fore recited ; and 

Whereas, it is the desire and intention of the General Assembly that a 
settlement of all the other outstanding obligations of the State (except 
those issued under the A61 of P'ebruary fourteenth, eighteen hundred and 
eighty-two, the evidences of debt held by the public instittitions of tlie 
State in pursuance of law and by the United States) as well as those con- 
trolled by the bondholders' committee, as aforesaid, shall be made under 
the provisions of this A61 ; therefore — 

1. Be it enadled by the General Assembly of Virginia, That the com- 
missioners of the sinking fund, a majority of whom may a<5l, be and they 
are hereby empowered and directed to create "listable" engraved bonds, 
registered and coupon, to such an extent as may be necessar}' to issue 
nineteen million of dollars of bonds in lieu of the twenty-eight million 
dollars of oiitstanding obligations, not funded under the Adl approved 
February fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, hereinbefore 
recited. 

2. The said bonds shall be dated July first, eighteen hundred and 
ninety-one, and be payable at the office of the treasurer of the State, or at 
such agenc)' in the city of New York as may be designated by the vState, 
on the first day of July, nineteen hundred and ninety-one, and shall bear 
interest from date, payable semi-annually on the first days of January and 
July in each year, at the rate of two per centum per annum for the first 
ten years, and three per centum per annum for the remaining ninety 
years ; the said interest may be payable in Richmond, New York, and 
London, or at either place, as may be designated by the State ; provided, 
that the State may at any time and from time to time after July first, nine- 
teen hundred and six, redeem at par any part of the principal with 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 407 

accrued interest. In case of such redemption before niaturit}', the bonds 
to be paid shall be determined by lot by said commissioners of the 
sinking fund, and notice of the bonds so seledted to Ije paid shall be given 
by publication beginning at least ninety days prior to an interest-due 
date, in a newspaper published in Richmond, Virginia, one in New York 
City, and one in L,ondon, England; and the interest from and after the 
next succeeding interest-due date shall cease upon the bonds so designated 
to be paid ; provided, that no registered bonds shall be so redeemed while 
there are any coupon bonds outstanding. 

3. The form of the bonds shall be substantially as follows, to 
wit: 

Issued under a6t of Assembly, approved day of 

, eighteen hundred and ninety-two. 

The Commonwealth of Virginia acknowledges herself to be indebted 

to (in case of a coupon bond, to the bearer, and in case 

of a registered bond, inserting the name of a person or corporation), or 

assigns, in the sum of dollars, which she promises to pay in 

lawful money of the United States, at the office of the treasurer of the 
State, or at such agency in the city of New York as may be designated by 
the State, on the first day of Juh% nineteen hundred and ninety-one, with 
the option of pa^'ment at par with accrued interest, before maturity at au}/ 
time after July first, nineteen hundred and six, and interest at the office of 
the treasurer of the State, or at the agencies of the State in New York 
City and London, England, or at either place, as may from time to time be 
designated by the State, in such lawful money aforesaid, at the rate of two 
per centum per annum for ten years from the first day of July, eighteen 
hundred and ninety-one, and at the rate of three per centum per annum 
thereafter until paid, payable semi-annually on Januar)' first and July first 
in each year (according to the tenor of the annexed coupon bearing the 
engraved signature of the Treasurer of the Commonwealth, in case of cou- 
pon bonds). And this obligation is hereby made exempt from any taxa- 
tion by the said Commonwealth of Virginia, or any county or miinicipal 
corporation thereof. 

In testimony whereof, witness the signature of the treasurer and the 
countersignature of the second auditor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 
hereto affixed according to law. 

[Seal.] Treasurer. 

Second Auditor. 

4. The form of coupon for coupon bonds shall be substantially as fol- 
lows, to wit : 

Coupon No. — . 

On the first day of the Commonwealth of Virginia will 

pay to bearer dollars in lawful money of the United States, at the 

office of the treasurer of the vState, or at the agencies of the State in New 
York City and London, England, or at either place, as may be designated 



408 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

by the State ; the same being six months' interest on bond number — . 
dollars. , Treasurer. 

Each coupon to be impressed on the back with its number, in order 
of maturity, from number one consecutively. 

5. Said commissioners of the sinking fund are authorized to issue 
coupon bonds in denominations of five hundred and one thousand dollars 
each, as may be necessary to caiTy out the provisions of this A61; provided 
that registered bonds may be issued of the denominations of one hundred 
dollars, five hundred dollars, one thousand dollars, five thoiisand dollars, 
ten thousand dollars ; and they are authorized and diredled to issue said 
bonds, registered or coupon, in exchange for the said outstanding obliga- 
tions up to and including July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one 
(exclusive of evidences of debt held by public institutions of the Common- 
wealth as aforesaid and bj- the United States) as follows : 

A. Said bondholders' committee may at any time on or before the 
thirtieth day of June, eighteen hiindred and ninety-two, present to said 
commissioners for verification bonds and other evidences of debt, and 
coupons or other evidences of interest thereon, obligations of the State of 
Virginia, held by said committee, for exchange as aforesaid ; and said 
commissioners shall determine whether the obligations so presented are 
genuine obligations of the State and whether the coupons or other evi- 
dences of interest represent interest accrued on such obligations (exclu- 
sive of evidences of debt held by public institutions of the Commonwealth 
as aforesaid and by the United States). 

B. Such of the obligations so presented for verification as may be 
determined by said commissioners to conform to the requirements of par- 
agraph A hereof, shall be sealed in convenient packages as the examina- 
tion proceeds. Bach of the packages shall be numbered, and upon each 
package shall be endorsed the amount and character of the obligations 
therein contained. Such endorsement on each package shall be signed 
by said commissioners or a majority thereof, and the package shall then 
be delivered to said committee or its agent. Said commissioners shall 
keep in a book to be provided for the purpose a record of the numbers of 
all such packages and of the amount and character of the obligations con- 
tained in each. Such obligations presented by said bondholders' commit- 
tee as do not conform to the requirements of paragraph A hereof shall be 
returned to said committee ; but said commissioners shall keep a record 
thereof in the book aforesaid. 

C. After said bondholders' committee shall have presented to said 
commissioners for verification bonds and other evidences of debt and cou. 
pons, or other evidences of interest thereon accrued on or before July first, 
eighteen hundred and ninety-one, obligations of the State of Virginia, all 
conforming to the requirements of paragraph A hereof, as determined by 
said commissioners, and amounting in the aggregate to not less than twenty- 
three million of dollars, after deducting one third of the principal and 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 409. 

interest of such obligations as were issued prior to the thirtieth day of 
March, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, and also deducting one third 
of the principal and interest of such obligations as were issiied under the 
Act approved the thirtieth day of March, eighteen hundred and seventy- 
one, as do include West Virginia's proportion, said bondholders' commit- 
tee may at any time on or prior to the thirtieth da3' of June, eighteen 
hvmdred and ninety-two, present the same in bulk to said commissioners 
for surrender and exchange as herein provided. All coupons matured or 
to mature on coupon bonds after July first, eighteen hundred and ninety- 
one, or coupons of like class and amount, or the face value thereof in cash 
shall be surrendered with such bonds, tlie said cash to be returned if 
proper coupons are subsequently tendered. And when the said bond- 
holders' committee shall have presented for exchange the obligations 
aforesaid to an amount of twenty-three million of dollars or more, if the 
engraved bonds hereinbefore authorized arc not ready for exchange, the 
said commissioners shall, upon application of said bondholders' commit- 
tee, issue to said bondholders' committee a manuscript registered bond of 
the State of Virginia, substantially of the form of the bond hereinbefore 
specified, for the aggregate anioimt to which the said committee may be 
entitled for the ooligations so presented under this Act, the said bond to 
be exchangeable for the engraved bonds aforesaid of character and amount 
required by said committee, as prescribed in this Act, and interest in the 
meantime on said manuscript bond shall be paid as herein provided for on 
the engraved bonds. 

D. The said new bonds shall be issued to said bondholders' committee 
by the said commissioners in the following proportion, to wit: nineteen 
thousand dollars of the new bonds to be created under this act shall be 
issued for every twenty-eight thousand of old outstanding obligations 
(principal and interest to July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one), as 
aforesaid, surrendered by said bondholders' committee to the said commis- 
sioners, after the deductions provided for in paragraph C of this section ; 
and a proportionate amount of said new bonds shall be issued for smaller 
sums of said outstanding obligations so surrendered; provided that no 
certificates issued on account of the proportion of West Virginia of the 
obligations of the vState shall be funded under this act. When said bond- 
holdholders' committee shall have surrendered and exchanged such obli- 
gations as aforesaid to the amount of at least twenty-tliree million dollars, 
said committee may at any time thereafter up to and including the thirti- 
eth day of June, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, present to said com- 
missioners for verification, surrender, and exchange additional obligations, 
principal and interest, as aforesaid ; all coupons matured or to mature on 
coupon bonds after July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, or coupons of 
like class and amount, or the face value thereof in cash, to be presented with 
such bonds, the cash, if paid, to be returned if proper coupons are subse- 
quently tendered. After said commissioners shall have determined that 
XXVII 



410 THE GOVEkNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

said obligations conform to the requirements of paragraph A hereof, said 
commissioners shall accept the obligations so presented for surrender and 
exchange by said committee, and shall deliver to said committee in 
exchange therefor new bonds issued under the provisions of this Act in the 
same proportion as is set out in this paragraph of this section, after niak. 
ing the deductions provided for in paragraph C of this section. 

E. If on making the exchange provided for in this Act said commit- 
tee shall be found entitled to a fractional amount or amounts less than one 
hundred dollars in addition to the new bonds delivered to it, said commis- 
sioners of the sinking fund shall issue to the committee a certificate or cer. 
tificates for such amount or amounts. Such fractional certificates shall be 
exchangeable for the bonds ai;thorized by this Act to be issued in sums of 
one hundred dollars, or any multiple thereof, and certificates of like char- 
acter shall be issued for any fractional amount which may remain in mak- 
ing the exchange. 

6. For all balances of the indebtedness, constituting West Virginia's 
share of the old debt, principal and interest, in the settlement of Vir- 
ginia's equitable share of the bonds authorized to be exchanged under this 
Act, tlie said share having been heretofore determined by the Common- 
wealth of Virginia, the said commissioners shall issue certificates substan- 
tially in the following form, viz.: 

No. . The Commonwealth of Virginia has this day discharged 

her equitable share of the (registered or coupon, as the case may be) bond 
for ■ dollars, dated day of , and No. , leaving a bal- 
ance of dollars, with interest from , to be accounted for to 

the holder of this certificate by the State of West Virginia, without 
recourse upon this Commonwealth. 

Done at the capital of the State of Virginia, this day of , 

eighteen hundred and ninety-two. 

, Second Auditor. 

, Treasurer. 

The certificates so issued under sections five and six of this Act shall 
be recorded by the second auditor in a book kept for that purpose, giving 
the date and number of the transaction to which it refers, the amount of 
certificates, and the name of the person or corporation to whom issued and 
delivered; and as such certificates, authorized by paragraph E, section 
five of this Act, are exchanged, the same shall be cancelled and preserved 
as herein provided in respect to the evidences of debt refunded. 

7. The commissioners of the sinking fund are hereby authorized and 
required to receive on deposit for verification, classification, and exchange 
siich of the said obligations of the State as may be presented to said com- 
missioners ; provided, that said commissioners shall not receive on deposit 
for the purposes aforesaid any outstanding obligations of the State which 
have been once deposited with the bondholders' committee, or may be 
hereafter deposited with them ; the said verification and exchange for the 



PHILIP IV. McKINNEY. 411 

new bonds of the obligations so deposited to be conducted in the same 
manner as hereinbefore provided with respect to the obligations deposited 
with the said bondholders' committee ; and the said commissioners of the 
sinking fnnd shall issue to and distribute amongst said depositing credi- 
tors after they have fully complied with the terms of this Act, in exchange 
for the obligations so deposited, bonds authorized by this Act as follows, 
viz.: To each of the several classes of said depositing creditors the same 
proportion, as nearly as may be found in their judgment practicable by 
the commissioners of the sinking fund, as the same class shall receive 
under the distribution which shall be made by the commission for the 
creditors represented by the bondholders' committee : provided, that no 
obligations shall be received for such deposit after the thirtieth day of 
June, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, nor shall any coupon bonds be 
received which do not have attached thereto all the coupons maturing 
after July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-one ; but for any such cou- 
pons as may be missing, coupons of like class and amount, or the face 
value thereof in cash may be received ; the said cash, if paid, to be 
returned if proper coupons are subsequently tendered ; and each depositor 
shall, when he receives his distributive share of the said new issue of 
bonds, pay to the commissioners of the sinking fund three and one-half 
per centum in cash of the par value of the bonds received by him, or a 
commission equal in amount to that which may at any time hereafter be 
fixed by the said committee of bondholders upon any bonds deposited 
with them, not, however, in any case to exceed three and one-half per 
centum ; and said sinking fund commissioners shall cover the fund thus 
received into the treasury of the Commonwealth. 

8. All the coupon and registered bonds issued under this Act shall be 
separately recorded by the second auditor in books provided for the spe- 
cific purpose, in each case giving the date, number, amount of obligations 
issued, and the name of the person or corporation to whom issued, and 
the date, number, amount, and description of the obligations surrendered. 

9. All the bonds and certificates of debt, and evidences of past due and 
unpaid interest, taken in under the provisions of this Act, shall be can- 
celled by the treasurer in the presence of the commissioners of the sink- 
ing fund, or a majority thereof, as the same are acquired, and by him 
carefully preserved, subject to disposition by the General Assembly ; a 
schedule of the bonds, certificates, and other evidences of debt so can- 
celled shall be certified by said commissioners and filed by the treasurer 
for preservation. 

10. In the year nineteen hundred and ten, and annually thereafter, there 
shall be set apart of the revenue collected from the property of the State 
each year up to and including the year nineteen hundred and twenty-nine, 
one-half of one per cent, upon the bonds issued under this Act, as well as 
upon the outstanding l)oiids issued under Act approved February four- 
teenth, eighteen hundred and eighty -two ; and in the year nineteen huu- 



412 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

dred and thirty, and annually thereafter until all the bonds issued under 
this Act and the said Act approved Februar}- fourteenth, eighteen hun- 
dred and eighty-two, are paid, there shall be set apart of the revenue col- 
lected from the property of the State each year one per cent, upon the 
outstanding bonds issued under the aforesaid Acts, which shall be paid 
into the treasury to the credit of the sinking fund, and the commissioners 
of the sinking fund shall annually, or oftener, apply the same to the 
redemption or purchase (at a rate not above par and accrued interest) of 
the bonds issued under the aforesaid Acts, and the bonds so redeemed shall 
be cancelled by the said commissioners and the same registered by the 
second auditor in a book to be kept for that purpose, giving tlie number 
and date of issue, the character,, the amoiuit, and the owner at the time of 
purchase of the bonds so redeemed and cancelled ; and in case no such 
purchase of bonds can be made, then the amount which can be redeemed 
shall be called in by lot, as provided in section two of this Act. All bonds 
of the State issued under the provisions of the Act aforesaid, approved 
February fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, and now held by 
said commissioners of the sinking fund, shall as soon as at least fifteen 
million of dollars of new bonds shall have been issued and delivered pur- 
suant to the provisions of this Act, be cancelled by said commissioners and 
preserved in the office of the treasurer of the Commonwealth. 

11. Executors, administrators, and others acting as fiduciaries, may 
participate in the settlement of the debt herein specified in the manner 
hereinbefore provided, and such action shall be deemed a lawful invest- 
ment of their trust fund. Executors, administrators, and others acting as 
fiduciaries, may invest in the bonds issued under this Act, and the same 
shall be considered a lawful investment. 

12. All coupons heretofore tendered for taxes and held by said tax-payers 
in pursuance of such tender, shall be received in payment of the taxes for 
which they were tendered, and upon their delivery to the proper collector 
or the amount thereof in money, the judgments obtained against the said 
tax-payers for such taxes shall be marked satisfied ; provided the said tax- 
payers shall have paid in money, and not in coupons, the costs of said 
judgments. All coupons heretofore tendered for taxes and held by the 
officers of the Commonwealth for verification in pursviance of the statute 
in such case made and provided, shall be received in payment of the taxes 
for which they were tendered, and the money collected for such taxes 
returned to the parties from whom it was received ; provided the said tax- 
payers shall have paid in money, and not in coupons, all costs incurred in 
legal proceedings to verify said coupons. 

13. The treasurer of the Commonwealth is authorized and directed to 
pay the interest on the bonds issued under this Act as the same shall become 
due and payable out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

14. The plates from which the bonds and fractional certificates author- 
ized by this Act are printed shall be the property of the Commonwealth. 



nil UP W. nfck'/NNEV. 413 

15. All necessary expenses incurred in the execution of this Act 
shall be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appro- 
priated on the warrants of the auditor of public accounts, drawn upon the 
treasury on the order of the commissioners of the sinking fund. 

16. The Act entitled "An Act to ascertain and declare Virginia's 
equitable share of the debt created before and actually existing at the time 
of the partition of her territory and resources, and to provide for the issu- 
ance of bonds covering the same, and the regular and prompt payment of 
interest thereon," approved Februar}- fourteenth, eighteen hundred and 
eight}'-two, and the amendments thereto, to wit : An Act entitled "An 
Act to declare the true intent and meaning of, and to amend and re-enact 
section five of chapter eighty-four of Acts eighteen hiindred and eighty- 
one and eighteen hundred and eighty-two, approved February four- 
teenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two," approved August twenty- 
seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-four; and the Act entitled "An Act 
to amend and re-enact an Act approved August twenty-seventh, eighteen 
hundred and eighty-four, entitled an Act to declare the true intent and 
meaning of, and to amend and re-enact section five of chapter eight3'-four 
of Acts of eighteen hundred and eighty-one and eighteen hundred and 
eighty-two, approved February fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eight}'- 
two," approved November twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and eightj'- 
four, are hereby repealed. 

17. The commissioners of the sinking fund are authorized, if it shall 
seem to them for the 1)est interest of the Commonwealth, to make one 
extension of the time for the funding of the said twenty-eight million of 
dollars of outstanding evidences of debt for a period not exceeding six 
months from the thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and ninety-two. 

18. The commissioners of the sinking fund are authorized to exchange 
coupon bonds issued under this Act into registered bonds in the denomi- 
nations hereinl)efore provided, and to arrange for the transfer of registered 
bonds. For every bond so issued in exchange a fee of fifty cents shall Ijc 
charged by and paid to the second auditor, and shall, upon his order, be 
covered into the treasury to the credit of the sinking fund; and bonds so 
taken in exchange shall be cancelled in the manner hereinbefore pre- 
scribed. 

19. This Act shall be in force from its passage. 



At this point it does not seem inappropriate to give the 
following gleanings from a volume issued b)^ the Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture lor Virginia, and published by author- 
ity of law. It pi(flures the Virginia of today : 

Virginia lies in latitude 36° 31^ to 39° 27^ north, corresponding to 
Southern Europe, Central Asia, Southern Japan, and California. Its long- 



414 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

itude is from 75° 13^ to 83° 37^ -west from Greenwich. On the south it 
adjoins North Carolina for 326 miles and Tennessee for 114 miles, making 
the line of the State from the Atlantic west 440 miles. On the west and 
northwest, Kentucky for 115 and West Virginia (by a very irregular line) 
for 450 miles, form the boundary. On the northeast and north it is sepa- 
rated by the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay from Marjland for 
205 miles, and by a line of 25 miles across the eastern shore. East 
and southeast it is bordered by the Atlantic for 125 miles. The boundary 
lines of the State measure about 1,400 miles. On the northwest they are 
mostl}' mountain ranges ; on the northeast and east, water. The longest 
line in the State, from the Atlantic southwest to Kentucky, is 476 miles; 
the longest from north to south is 192 miles. 

The State has an area of land surface of 40,125 square miles and a 
water surface estimated at 2,325 square miles. Its mountains are the two 
great chains of the Appalachian Range. The highest and most noted 
peaks are on the Blue Ridge, standing between the great valley and Pied- 
mont, overlooking the east and west. Their location gives these high 
peaks a beauty and grandeur not often surpassed. 

Its principal inland waters are the Chesapeake and Mobjack Bays and 
Hampton Roads. Its only considerable lake, Lake Drumniond, in the Dis- 
mal Swamp, occupies the highest part of the swamp, being 22 feet above 
mean tidewater, and flows out on all sides through natural and artificial 
channels into the rivers. It is filled with fish, but no animals harbor or 
can be found near its banks. The water (called Juniper) is pleasant to the 
taste ; though amber-colored, keeps pure for years. Sea-going vessels 
have for many years secured this water for long voyages. It is used by 
the United States naval vessels which go out from the navy-yard at Ports- 
mouth. The lake is nearly round and nearly 20 miles in circumference. 

PrincipaIv Rivers and Branches. 

The waters belonging to the Atlantic system drain six-sevenths of the 
State. The principal streams of this svstem are : The Potomac, a wide 
and deep river, the northeastern boundary of Virginia, with its large 
branches, the Shenandoah and the South Branch, and its prominent 
smaller ones, Potomac Creek, Occoquan River, Broad Run, Goose, Catoc- 
tin and Opequon Creeks, draining a large area of each of the sedlions of 
the State. The Potomac is navigable for no miles from where it enters 
the bay, some 65 miles from the ocean. It has many landings, and lines 
of steamers and sailing vessels connect with all portions of the country, 
giving great facilities for cheap transportation to a very extensive and val- 
uable portion of the Northern Neck. The Rappahannock, with its Rapid 
Anne and numerous other branches, flows from the Blue Ridge across 
Piedmont, Middle and Tidewater, irrigating a large territory. The Rap- 
pahannock is navigable to Fredericksburg, 92 miles from its mou,th at the 
bay, some 40 miles from the ocean. The Piankitank, draining only a por- 



PHI UP W. McKlNNEY. 415 

tion of Tidewater, is navigable for some 14 miles ; and Mobjack Bay and 
its rivers furnish deep entrances to the Gloucester Peninsula. The York, 
with its Pamunkey and Mattapony branches, and many tributaries, flows 
through a considerable area of Middle and Tidewater. The York is a 
wide, deep, and almost straight belt of water, reaching over 40 miles from 
the bay to the junction of the Pamunkey and the Mattapony, which are 
themselves navigable for many miles for light-draught vessels. The 
James, with the Chickahominy, Elizabeth, Nansemond, Appomattox, Riv- 
anna, Willis', Slate, Rockfish, Tye, Pedlar, North, Cowpasture, Jackson's, 
and many other inflowing rivers and streams of all kinds, gathers from a 
large territory in all the divisions, draining more of the State than any 
other river. The James is navigable to Richmond. The Elizabeth is a 
broad arm of the Hampton Roads estuary of the James, extending for 12 
miles, the last four of which are expanded as the superb harbor between 
the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. All these flow into Chesapeake Bay. 
The Chowan, through its Black water, Nottoway and Meherrin branches 
and their affluents, waters portions of Middle and Tidewater Virginia. 
The Roanoke, called the Staunton fro:u the mouth of the Dan to the 
Blue Ridge, receives the Dan, Otter, Pig, and many other streams from 
the Valley, Piedmont and Middle Virginia, and then flows through North 
Carolina to Albemarle Sound, joining the Chowan. The sources of the 
Yadkin are in the Blue Ridge. 

The waters of the Ohio, a part of the Mississippi system, drain the 
remaining seventh of the State ; but they reach the Ohio by three diverse 
ways. The rivers are : The Kanawha or New River, that rises in North 
Carolina, in the most elevated portion of the United States east of the 
Mississippi, flows through the plateau of the Blue Ridge, from which it 
receives Chestnut, Poplar Camp, Reed Island and other creeks and Little 
River; across the Valley, where Cripple, Reed and Peak's Creeks join it ; 
across Appalachia, from which Walker's, Sinking, Big and Little Stony 
and Wolf Creeks and East and Blucstone Rivers flow into it, and then 
through West Virginia into the Ohio, having cut through the whole Appa- 
lachian system of mountains, except its eastern barrier, the Blue Ridge. 
The Holston, through its South, Middle and North Forks, Moccasin 
Creek, etc., drains the southwestern portions of the Valley and Appa- 
lachia; and the Clinch, by its North and South Forks, Copper Creek, 
Guest's and Powell's Rivers, and many other tributaries, waters the ex- 
treme southwest of the Appalachian Country. These flow into the Ten- 
nessee. A portion of the mountain country gives rise to the Louisa and 
Russell's Forks of the Big Sandy River, and to some branches of the Tug 
Fork of the same river, the Tug forming the Virginia line for a space. 
These flow into the Ohio by the Big Sandy. 

These are but a few of the thousand or more named and valuable 
streams of Virginia. They abound in all portions of the State, giving a 
vast quantity of water-power, irrigating the country, furnishing waters 



416 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

suited to every species of fish, giving cliaiiuels for the tide and inland 
navigation, and enlivening the landscapes. Springs are very numerous, 
many of them of large size. Nearly every portion of the State is well 
watered. 

Virginia has about 1,500 miles of steamboat navigation and as much 
more for small boats. Its tide-waters afford 3,000 miles of fishing shores 
and over 2,000 of oyster grounds. The chief cities are Richmond, the 
capital, population 81,388; Norfolk, the gi'eat seaport, popixlation 34,871 ; 
Petersburg, on the Appomattox, population 22,680; Lynchburg, on the 
James, population 19,709; Roanoke, in the valley, 16,159; Alexandria, on 
the Potomac, population 14,339; Portsmouth, a seaport, population 
13,268 ; Danville, on the Dan, population 10,305 ; Manchester, across the 
James from Richmond, population 9,246; and many smaller and well- 
situated cities of over 5,000 inhabitants. These figures are from the census 
of 1890. 

There are six great natural divisions of Virginia — belts of country 
extending across the State from northeast to southwest, nearly parallel to 
each other, and corresponding to the trend of the Atlantic coast on the 
east, and the Appalachian system of mountains on the northwest. These 
grand divisions are taken in the order of succession from the ocean north- 
west across the State ; ist. The Tidewater Countrj^ ; 2d. Middle Virginia ; 
3d. The Piedmont Section ; 4th. The Blue Ridge Country ; 5th. The Great 
Valley of Virginia ; 6th. The Appalachian Country. These divisions not 
only succeed each other gcographicall)', but they occupy different levels 
above the sea, rising to the west like a grand stairway. They differ geo- 
logically also ; therefore, they have differences of climate, soil, productions 
etc., and require separate consideration in a description of the State. 

Tidewater Virginia 

Is the eastern and southeastern part of the State that on the south borders 
North Carolina 104 miles; on the east has an air-line border of 120 miles 
along the Atlantic; on the west is bounded by 150 miles of the irregular 
outline of the Middle Country — (this would be 164 miles if it took in tlie 
mere edge of Tidewater along the Potomac up to Georgetown). The 
shore line of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay for 140 miles, 
and a line of 25 miles across the eastern shore, separate it from Maryland 
on the north. The whole forms an irregular quadrilateral, averaging 114 
miles in length from north to south, and 90 in width from east to west, 
making an area of some 11,000 square miles. 

The latitude is from 36° 33^ to 38° 54' north, corresponding to that of 
the countries bordering on the northern shores of the Mediterranean. The 
longitude is from 75° 13^ to 77° 30' west from Greenwich — that of Ontario, 
in Canada, on the north, and of the Bahamas, Cuba, etc., on the south. 

This is emphatically a tidewater country, since every portion of it is 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 417 

penetrated by the tidal waters of Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers, 
creeks, bays, and inlets. The united waters of nearly all this section, with 
those that drain 40,000 more square miles of country, or the drainage of 
50,000 square miles (an area equal to that of England), flow out through 
the channel, 12 miles wide, between Capes Charles and Henry, and 50 or 
60 miles from the land runs the ever-flowing Gulf Stream. 

The Middi,e Country 

Extends westward from the "head of tide" to the foot of the low, broken 
ranges that, under the names of Catocton, Bull Run, Yew, Clark's, South- 
west, Carter's, Green, Findlay's, Buffalo, Chandler's, Smith's, etc. 
mountains and hills, extend across the State southwest, from the Potomac 
near the northern corner of Fairfax County, to the North Carolina line, 
forming the eastern outliers of the Appalachian system, and that may with 
propriety be called the Atlantic Coast Range. 

The general form of this section is that of a large right-angled triangle, 
its base resting on the North Carolina line for 120 miles; its perpendicular, 
aline 174 miles long, extending from the Carolina line to the Potomac ; 
just east of and parallel to the meridian of 77° 30^ west, is the right line 
along the waving border of Tidewater, which lies east ; the hypothenuse 
is the 216 miles along the Coast Range before mentioned, the border of 
Piedmont, on the northwest — the area of the whole, including the irreg- 
ular outline, being some 12,470 square miles. 

The latitude of this section is from 36° 33' to 39° ; tlie longitude, 70° 
to 79° 40' west. So its general situation and relations are nearly similar 
to those of Tidewater. 

The Middle Country is a great, moderately undulating plain, from 25 
to 100 miles wide, rising to the nortliwest from an elevation of 150 to 200 
feet above tide, at the rocky rim of its eastern margin, to from 300 to 500 
along its northwestern. In general appearance this is more like a plain 
than any other portion of the State. The principal streams, as a rule, 
cross it at right angles; so it is a succession of ridges and valleys running 
southeast and northwest, the valleys often narrow and deep, but the ridges 
generally not very prominent. The appearance of much of this country 
is somewhat monotonous, having many dark evergreen trees in its forests. 
To many portions of the Middle Country the mountain ranges to the west, 
of the deepest blue, form an agreeable and distant boundary to the other- 
wise sober landscape. There are a few prominences like Willis', Slate 
River, and White Oak Mountains farther east, only prominent because in 
a champaign country. 

Piedmont Virginia 

Is the long belt of country stretching for 244 miles from the banks of the 
Potomac and the Maryland line southwest, alopg the eastern base of the 

XXVIII 



418 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Blue Ridge Mountains, and between them and the Coast Range, to the 
banks of the Dan at the North Carolina line ; it varies in width from 20 to 
30 miles, averaging about 25 ; its approximate area is 6,680 square miles. 

Its latitude corresponds with that of the State, 36° 33' to 39° 27' north ; 
its longitude is from 77° 20' to 80° 50^ west. 

This Piedmont Country is the fifth step of the great stairway ascend- 
ing to the west ; its eastern edge, along Middle Virginia, is from 300 to 
500 feet above the sea ; then come the broken ranges of the Coast Mount- 
ains, rising as detached or connected knobs, in lines or groups, from 100 
to 600 feet higher. These are succeeded by the numberless valleys of all 
imaginable forms, some long, straight, and wide ; others narrow and 
widening; others again oval and almost enclosed, locally known as 
"Coves," that extend across to and far into the Blue Ridge, the spurs of 
which often reach out southwardly for miles, ramifying in all directions. 
Portions of Piedmont form widely extended plains. The land west of the 
Coast Range is generally from 300 to 500 feet above the sea, and rises to 
the west, until at the foot of the Blue Ridge it attains an elevation of from 
600 to 1,200 feet. The Blue Ridge rises to from 2,000 to 4,000 feet above 
the sea; at one point near the Tennessee line it reaches a height of 5,530 
feet; its general elevation is aboi:t 2,500, but its outline is very irregular. 

Numerous streams have their origin in the gorges of the Blue Ridge, 
and most of them then flow across Piedmont to the southeast until near its 
border, where they unite and form one that runs for a considerable distance 
along and parallel to the Coast Mountains, and takes the name of some of 
the well-known rivers that cross Middle and even Tidewater Virginia, like 
the Roanoke or Staunton, and the James. Some of these rivers break 
through the Blue Ridge from the Valley, making water gaps in that for- 
midable mountain barrier, as the Potomac, the James and the Roanoke ; 
but they all follow the rule above given in their way across this section. 

This is a genuine " Piedmont " country — one in which the moimtains 
present themselves in their grand as well as in their diminutive forms — 
gradually sinking down into the plains, giving great diversity and 
picturesqueness to the landscape. Few countries surpass this in beauty of 
scenery and choice of prospect, so it has alwa}'S been a favorite section 
with men of refinement in which to fix their homes. Its population is 31 
to the square mile, giving some 21 acres each. 

The Great Vallev of Virginia 

Is the belt of limestone land west of the Blue Ridge, and between it and 
the numerous interrupted ranges of mountains, with various local names, 
that run parallel to it on the west at an average distance of some twenty 
miles, that collectively are called the Kitatinny or North Mountains. 
This valley extends in West Virginia and Virginia for more than 330 miles 
from the Potomac to the Tennessee line, and 305 miles of this splendid 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 419 

countrj^ are within the limits of Virginia. The county lines generally 
extend from the top of the Blue Ridge to the top of the second or third 
mountain range beyond the Valley proper, so that the political Valley is 
somewhat larger than the natural one, which has an area of about 6,000 
square miles, while the former has 7,550, and a population of twenty-six 
to the square mile. The latitude of the Valley is from 36° 35^ N. to 39° 
26'; its longitude is from 77° 50' to 80° 16^ W. 

While this is one continuous valley clearly defined by its bounding 
mountains, it is not the valley of one river, or of one system of rivers, but 
of five ; so that it has four water-sheds and four river troughs in its length 
along the Valley from the Potomac to the Tennessee line. These valleys 
and their length in the Great Valley, are from the northeast — 

1st. The Shenandoah Valley 136 miles 

2d. The James River Valley 50 " 

3d. The Roanoke River Valley 38 " 

4th. The Kanawha or New River Valley 54 " 

5th. The Valley of the Holston or Tennessee 52 " 

330 miles 
As a whole, the Valley rises to the southwest, being 242 feet above the 
tide where the Shenandoah enters the Potomac and the united rivers 
break through the Blue Ridge at Harper's Ferr^', and 1,687 feet where the 
waters of the Holston leave the State and pass into Tennessee. The entire 
Valley appears then as a series of ascending and descending planes, slop- 
ing to the northeast or the southwest. That of the Shenandoah rises from 
242 to 1,863 feet along the line of its main stream, in 136 miles, looking 
northeast ; those of the James slope both ways, from the Shenandoah sum- 
mit to the southwest, and from the Roanoke summit to the northeast, and 
so on. This arrangement gives this seventh great step a variety of eleva- 
tions above the sea from 242 to 2,594 feet, or even 3,000, in a great enclosed 
valley, subdivided into' very many minor valleys, giving " facings " in all 
directions ; for the whole Valley has a very decided southeastern inclina- 
tion, to be considered in this connection, its western side being from 500 
to 1,000 feet in surface elevation above its eastern, presenting its mass to 
the sun, giving its streams a tendency to flow across it toward the east, as 
the result of its combined slopes, and making the main drainage way hug 
the western base of the Blue Ridge. A moment's reflection will show that 
this is a well-watered country, having a wealth of water-power and drain- 
age and irrigation resources almost beyond estimate. 

The aspect of this region is exceedingly pleasant. The great width of 
the Valley ; the singular coloring, and wavy, but bold outline of the Blue 
Ridge ; the long, uniform lines of the Alleghany Mountains, and the high 
knobs that rise up behind them in the distance ; the detached ranges that 
often extend for many miles in the midst of the Valley like huge lines of 
fortification — all these for the outline, filled up with park -like forests, 
well-cultivated farms, well-l)uilt towns, and threaded by bright and 
abounding rivers, make this a charming and inviting region. 



420 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

The Blue Ridge Section, 

For two thirds of its length of 310 miles, is embraced in the Valley and 
Piedmont counties that have their connnon lines upon its watershed ; it is 
only the southwestern portion of it, where it expands into a plateau, with 
an area of some i ,230 square miles, that forms a separate political division ; 
still the whole range and its numerous spurs, parallel ridges, detached 
knobs and foot hills, varying in width from 3 to 20 miles, embracing nearly 
2,500 square miles of territory, is a distinct region, not only in appearance 
but in all essential particulars. The river, in the gorge where the Potomac 
breaks through the Blue Ridge, is 242 feet above tide. The Blue Ridge 
there attains an elevation of 1,460 feet. Mt. Marshall, near and south of 
Front Royal, is 3,369 feet high; the notch, Rockfish Gap, at the Chesa- 
peake and Ohio Railroad, is 1,996 feet, and James River, where it passes 
through the Ridge, is 706 feet above tide, or more than twice as high as 
the Potomac at its passage. The Peaks of Otter, in Bedford County, are 
3,993 feet, and the Balsam Mountain, in Grayson, is 5,700 feet, and in 
North Carolina this range is nearly 7,000 feet above the sea level. These 
figures show that tliis range increases in elevation as we go southwest, and 
every portion of the country near rises in the same manner. At a little 
distance this range is generally of a deep blue color. The whole mountain 
range may be characterized as a series of swelling domes, connected by 
long ridges meeting between the high points in gaps or notches, and send- 
ing out long spurs in all directions from the general range, but more 
especially on the eastern side, these in turn sending out other spurs, giving 
a great development of surface and variety of exposure. 

The political division upon the plateau of the Blue Ridge is the 
counties of Floyd, Carroll and Grayson, all watered by the Kanawha, or 
New River, and its branches, a tributary of the Ohio, except the little val- 
ley in the southwest corner of Grayson, which sends its waters to the Ten- 
nessee. The population of this romantic sedlion is 23 to the square mile. 

Appalachian Virginia 

Succeeds the Valley on the west. It is a mountain countr}^ traversed its 
whole length by the Appalachian or Alleghany system of mountains. It 
may be considered as a series of comparatively narrow, long, parallel val- 
leys, running northeast and southwest, separated from each other by 
mountain ranges that are, generally, equally narrow, long and parallel, 
and quite elevated. In crossing this section to the northwest, at right 
angles to its mountains and valleys, in fifty miles one will cross from six 
to ten of these motintain ranges, and as many valleys. As before stated, a 
strip of this region is embraced in the Valley counties, as they include the 
two or three front ranges that have drainage into the Valley ; so that some 
900 square miles of Appalachia are politically classed with the Valley, 
leaving 5,720 square miles to be treated of here. This, in Virginia, is an 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 421 

irregular belt of country 260 miles long, varying in width from 10 to 50 
miles. Its waters, generally, flow northeast and southwest, but it has 
basins that drain north and northwest, and south and southeast. The 
heads of the valleys are generally from 2,000 to 2,800 feet above tide, and 
the waters often flow from each way to a central depression — that is, from 
600 to 1,200 feet above sea level — before they unite and break through the 
enclosing ranges. The remarks made concerning the slopes of the Great 
Valley apply also to this section, except that the Appalachian valleys are 
straighter. 

Appalachia is noted as a grazing country, its elevation giving it a cool, 
moist atmosphere, admirablj' adapted, with its fertile soil, to the growth 
of grass and the rearing of stock of all kinds. 

The geological fonuations found in Virginia, like its geographical 
divisions, succeed each other in belts, either complete or broken, nearly 
parallel to the coast of the Atlantic. In fact, the geographical divisions of 
the State that have already been given correspond in the main to the dif- 
ferent geological fonuations, and have been suggested by them; hence, 
those divisions are natural. 

The formations developed in Virginia, taken in the order in which 
they succeed each other and cover the surface, or form the rocks found 
with the surface, from the Atlantic at the Virginia capes to the northwest 
across the State, are as follows : 

Tidewater. — i. Quarternary; 2. Upper Tertiary ; 3. Middle Tertiary ; 
4. Lower Tertiary. Middle. — 5. Triassic and Jurassic ; 6. Azoic and Gra- 
nitic. Piedmont. — 7. Azoic, Epidotic, etc. Blue Ridge. — 8. Azoic and 
Cambrian. The Valley. — 9. Cambrian and Silurian. Appalachia. — 10. 
Sub-carboniferous and Devonian; 11. Silurian; 12. Devonian and Sub- 
carboniferous; 13. Great Carboniferous. 

The chara6ler of the soils of Virginia, as of other countries, is depend- 
ent upon its geology. 

The mineral resources of the State may be summed up as consisting — 

In Tidewater Virginia 

Of several kinds of marls, grecnsand, etc., highly esteemed as fertilizers; 
of choice clays, sands and shell limestone, for building purposes. 

In the Middle Section 

Of fine granites, gneiss, brownstone, sandstone, brick-clays, fire-clays, 
soap-stones, marble, slates, etc., for building materials; epidote in various 
forms and limestone for fertilizing uses; gold, silver, copper, specular, 
magnetic, hematite and other ores of iron in abundance; bituminous 
coal, etc. 



422 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

In Pie;dmont Virginia 

Granitic building stones, marbles, sandstones, brick and fire-clays; epi- 
dotic rocks and limestone, for improving the soil ; magnetic, hematite and 
other ores of iron ; barytes, lead, manganese, etc. 

In the Blue Ridge District 

Various and abundant ores of copper ; immense deposits of specular and 
brown hematite and other iron ores ; greenstone rocks, rich in all the ele- 
ments of fertility ; sandstones and freestones ; glass sand and manganese ; 
brick and fire-clays. 

In the VALI.EY 

Limestones of all kinds, for building and agricultural uses; marbles, 
slates, freestones and sandstones; brick and fire-clays, kaolin, barytes; 
hematite, iron ores, lead and zinc in abundance ; tin, semi-anthracite coal, 
travertine marls, etc. 

In THE Appalachian Country 

Limestones, marbles, sand and freestone ; slates, calcareous marls, brick- 
clays, etc.; various deposits of red, brown and other ores of iron, plaster, 
salt, etc., and a large area of all varieties of bituminous coal. 

It is verj' difficult, within the limits of a publication like this, to pre- 
sent with anything like detail a fair statement of the enormous mineral 
resources of the State. For all pracftical purposes, they are boundless in 
extent, and their distribution is such as to warrant the assertion that 
before the close of the present century the aggregate product of our mines 
will surpass in value those of any other State in the Union. 

Between the Atlantic coast and the western boundaries of the State, 
the whole "geological colunm " is represented, from the foundation gran- 
ite to the capstones of the upper carboniferous. And in these successive 
strata are found the rocks and minerals peculiar to each all over the world, 
and usually in greater abundance and of greater excellence than anywhere 
else within the same area. 

It would require the space of a large volume to indicate all the locali- 
ties where these underground treasi:res are now known to exist, and to 
describe their specific qualities and estimate their quantities. 

In 1891 the Commissioner of Agriculture reported from statistics that — 

"In Virginia there have been found, tested and developed, immense 
deposits of minerals richer than in any other land. The coke from her 
immense coal fields is higher in fixed carbon and more valuable for smelt- 
ing than any other, and has been carried hundreds of miles by rail to 
make cheap iron in other States. Her iron for steel, for cannon, for car- 
wheels, for stoves, etc., has been given iipon test the highest place. Her 
immense deposits of manganese stand before the world without a rival. 
Her zinc has long had a reputation based on a large contradl with the Ital- 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 423 

ian Government, and Ijoth the mines and the smelting are increasing. 
Her granite was accepted by the Federal Government for building after an 
official test, and the finest pavements in many cities of our sister States 
are of her Belgian block. Her large deposits of magnesian lime still fur- 
nish the celebrated James River cement. 

" Her Buckingham slate stands without a rival in roofing. These all 
have had official and practical tests. 

. "Add to these, minerals that have been developed and believed to 
have shown paying quality and quantity, the pyrite of Louisa, mica of 
Amelia, fire-clay and ochre of Chesterfield, gold of the middle counties, 
baryta, soapstone, lead, copper, tin, asbestos, plumbago, kaolin, gypsum, 
salt, lime, marble, lithographic stone and many others, and Virginia may 
well be proud of her mineral wealth." 

Iron. 

More than half the counties of the State contain mines of iron ore in 
ample quantities to give employment to tliousands of men for ages yet to 
come. 

The varieties in different localities are — 

JMagnetites (magnetic ore, so called because of its polarity, or myste- 
rious power of attracting the magnetic needle). 

Limonites (more commonly called brown hematite), and 

Specular, or red hematite ores. 

Professor McCreath, in his "Mineral Wealth of Virginia," says of the 
iron ores of Southwest Virginia : 

"This iron ore region is for the most part embraced in Pulaski, Wythe, 
and Smyth Counties, in Southwest Virginia. The ores lie on both sides 
of New River and Cripple Creek, and the railroad line following these 
streams renders the whole ore supply practically available for market. 

" The limestone ores of the Cripple Creek region show as high a gen- 
eral character as any brown hematite ores mined in the country. The 
result of numerous analyses shows an average richness in metallic iron of 
over 54 per cent, in the ore dried at 212° F., with about one tenth of one 
per cent, of phosphorus. This unusually fine character is found to be ■very 
uniform through all the numerous mines and outcrops examined. It is 
somewhat extraordinary that not only is there this regularity in the per- 
centage of iron, but also that the phosphorus shows a great uniformity in 
specimens taken widely apart ; and in no case has it been found to exceed 
two tenths of one percent. The quality of the ore is such that it .smelts 
very easily in the furnace, and it should require a minimum amount of 
both flux and fuel. 

"The quantity of iron ore in the Cripple Creek region is undoubtedly 
very great. The limestone deposits occur in clefts and cavities of the 
limestone mixed with clay ; but in this district, rarely with any flint. 



424 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

The method of occurrence is such that the banks will yield widely varying 
quantities of ore. Some of them have been worked for many years, and 
shafts are reported to have been sunk loo feet in ore-bearing clays with 
bottom of shaft stiU in ore. Frequently the ore-bearing material is of 
unusual richness, yielding in the washer fully one half clean ore." 

Coal. 

In the immediate vicinity of Richmond, lying on both sides of James 
River, the longest worked coal field in tlie United States exists. The coal 
is bituminous, and has long been esteemed as an excellent domestic fuel, 
and for foundry and blacksmith work, and the generation of steam. Coal 
was shipped from this field to Philadelphia before the Pennsylvania mines 
were worked. The field is from ten to twelve miles wide, and from thirty 
to forty in length, and in many places the seams are of enormous thick- 
ness. As a convenient supply to Richmond and towns and vessels on 
James River, this coal is an important element of wealth in the State. 
Over a million tons were taken from this field in twenty years — from 1822 
to 1845. 

Coal has been said to be discovered in Amelia County, and has been 
worked with some success in Cumberland County near Farmville, and coal 
is being developed in Powhatan and Goochland. Little veins of cannel 
coal have been found in Chesterfield, specimens of which have been brought 
to the Department of Agriculture. So far the only certain large deposits 
of this beautiful coal are in the County of Wise, a part of the great coal 
fields of the Southwest reaching into Kentucky and West Virginia. 

In Botetourt, Pulaski, Montgomery, and Wythe Counties are some- 
what extensive deposits of a semi-anthracite coal of local importance and 
value, furnishing a good domestic fuel. It is also used in the great zinc- 
reduction works at Pulaski, and at the salt works in Washington County. 

In Rockingham and Augusta Counties are some irregular seams of 
true anthracite, but their extent and commercial value have not been 
determined. A Pennsylvania company is now working in Rockingham 
County. 

The great Virginia coal field lies in the Counties of Tazewell, Russell, 
Buchanan, Dickenson, Wise, Lee and Scott. In these counties from eight 
hundred to one thousand square miles are underlaid with numerous seams 
of as pure and rich bituminous and cannel coal as have been found in the 
world. The bituminous coals proper cover the whole area mentioned — the 
splint more than two thirds of it, and the cannel coal a much smaller and 
as yet undetermined area. These coals are in the Lower and Middle pro- 
ductive measures. At Pocahontas, in Tazewell, where the mines now yield 
about one million tons per annum, only the Lower measures are worked, 
where a coal similar to that on New River, in West Virginia, is found in 
much larger seams than in West Virginia. In Russell, Buchanan, Dick- 
enson, Wise, Lee and Scott, there are generally four, but in some places 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 425 

six seams of unsurpassed coal for all purposes, including coking coals that 
make a coke seven per cent, richer in carbon and freer from sulphur and 
ash than the celebrated Connellsville coke of Pennsylvania, and four per 
cent, better than the Alabama coke, that is so rapidly building up a vast 
iron production in that State. Several railroads to and through this 
immense storage of the best fuel for metallurgical purposes, for gas pro- 
duction, steam and domestic use, are projected, and one is built. The 
companies are organized, and there is every indication that within the 
next ten years the development in that section of the State will surpass 
anything in its historj'. The best of the iron ores above mentioned are in 
close proximity to these coals; and the agricultural resources of that part 
of the State are adequate to the support of an immense industrial popula- 
tion. 

Prior to 1883, comparatively little coal was mined in Virginia, the 
output of 1880 being less than 50,000 tons, but during that year the Flat 
Top coal regions were opened up mainly by the Southwest Virginia 
Improvement Company, the Norfolk and Western Railroad having been 
extended to this section. In 1883 this company mined 99,871 tons of 
coal, and in 1884, 283,252 tons. There are now several other companies 
developing coal mines in the same territory, and the prospects are 
good for a very important coal mining interest growing up in that section. 
The coal is of excellent quality both for steam purposes and for coke 
making, and as the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company have built at 
Norfolk, Va., one of the largest coal piers in the world for shipping this 
coal, there is no doubt that there will be a large increase in the amount of 
coal produced at these mines during the next few years. This will 
naturally result in making Norfolk an important coal shipping port and 
coaling station for foreign steamships. The distance from these mines to 
Norfolk is about 378 miles. For coking purposes, this coal as already 
stated, has proved very satisfactory'. This statement was made in 
1886. 

It may with safety be predicted that in a few years Virginia will take 
an important rank as a coal-producing State. And she will moreover have 
two important coal ports : Norfolk receiving and shipping the steadily 
increasing quantity of coal brought from the Flat Top coal field by the 
Norfolk and Western Railroad, and Newport News, already doing a heavy 
business in West Virginia coal, mined along the line of the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Railroad. 

Zinc. 

At Pulaski City, on the Norfolk and Western Railroad, in Southwestern 
Virginia, are located the largest zinc works in the South, with a supply of 
ore ascertained to be millions of tons. In numerous other localities in the 
same section of the state this valuable metal is found, and doubtless will 
lead to the erection of other works. 



426 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Lead. 

In Wythe County lead has been extensively mined for over a hundred 
years. These mines were worked in 1773, and more than twenty millions 
of tons have been taken from them. The crude ore is found in veins in 
the limestone, yielding from 5 to 15 per cent. At present the largest lead 
works in the South are carried on there, with an apparently exhaustless 
supply to draw from. In some sections other mines of great value have 
been found, and means are on foot to develop some of them. 

Manganese. 

Manganese is found widely disseminated through Virginia in the form 
of black oxide and as manganiferous iron ore. The most productive man- 
ganese mine now worked in the United States is that of the Crimora 
Company, Augusta County, at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains on 
the west, near Waynesboro. Other deposits, that are thought to be as large, 
have recently been brought to light within a few miles of Crimora, between 
the Shenandoah Valley Railroad and the Blue Ridge. 

Tin. 

In Rockbridge County, tin has been found, with indications that the 
mines are extensive. The c^iality of the ore has been ascertained by 
analysis to be excellent, and it is expected from the openings now made, 
that the quantity will be sufficient to insure adequate capital for the full 
development of the mines. 

"The tin field is located in a small area in the eastern part of Rockbridge 
County, Virginia. The region is very accessible from nearly all directions. 

"The Irish Creek area witliin which tin ore has been found is about 
three miles wide from northwest to southeast, and about four miles long 
from northeast to southwest, and therefore embraces some twelve square 
miles of territory. It is near three lines of railways. 

"The geological and mineralogical conditions of the Irish Creek tin- 
bearing region are similar to, if not identical with, those of the Cornwall 
(England) and other noted tin-producing districts. There are the same 
crystalline and metaphoric rocks, broken, fissured, and faulted by dikes of 
trap, basalt, and other igneous rocks, thus furnishing similar conditions 
for the formation of true, profitable, metalliferous fissure veins, such as are 
caused by profound movements of the earth's crust — just such veins as 
those in which stanniferous ores of the Irish Creek district are found. 

"The exposure of the Irish Creek tin veins, both natural and artificial, 
unmistakably leads to the conclusion that these veins compare in general 
character, extent, thickness and richness in metallic tin most favorably 
with those of the famous Cornwall district of England, while the mining 
conditions are better. I may add that no region can offer superior advan- 
tages for extensive mining and metallurgical operations ; the climate is all 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 427 

the year round salubrious and favorable for work. The Blue Ridge proper 
of Virginia, unlike most mountain chains, is a very garden of fertility and 
varied productiveness, and the same may be said of Piedmont Virginia, 
that flanks it on the east, and of the famous limestone valley that flanks it 
on the west. The forests of this region can be depended on for charcoal, 
and it is not far by direct railway to the best metal-working and coking- 
coals in the United States. ' ' 

Copper. 

In Carroll, Floyd, and Grayson Counties, large veins of copper ores, 
sulphurets and carbonates exist, and prior to the war some of them were 
successfully worked. But their remoteness from railway lines has deterred 
capitalists from re-establishing these mining operations. There is some 
prospect that at an early day a railroad will penetrate that region , and lead 
to the re-opening of these valuable mines. 

In several of the Piedmont counties copper ores are known to exist, 
but the mines have never been operated, except in Loudoun and Amherst, 
where much valuable ore has l)een raised and shipped to the North, and 
considerable quantities of native copper ores have been gotten as a by- 
product from the pyrites of the Arminius mines in Louisa County. 

Copper has been discovered in at least eighteen counties in Virginia, 
and in many of them considerably developed. 

Sai,T. 

In conjunction with the strata banks of north Holston Valley the 
celebrated wells of salt exist that have been used for about a century at 
Saltville, in Washington County, and during the late Civil War supplied 
nearly the whole Confederacy east of the Mississippi with the indispens- 
able article of salt, of the greatest purity. No diminution in supply or 
quality has ever been detected. The production now is about half a mil- 
lion bushels annually. 

The rock at Saltville, possibly 200 feet thick by an unknown length, 
may have a different origin from that of the gypsum — possibly may be due 
to deposition in a secure basin from brines flowing constantly from the 
salt-bearing groups of rocks known to be in the sub-carboniferous series. 
The brines are of an unusual degree of purity ; have been drawn upon for 
many years by the salt works of Saltville, making over 500,000 bushels of 
salt annually, without any appreciable diminution of either strength or 
quantity. 

The brine is drawn from artesian wells about 200 feet deep, rising to 
within forty feet of the surface. This brine comes from a solid bed of rock 
salt 200 feet below the level of the Holston, and borings have been made 
into it 176 feet without passing through it. The supply of brine is not 
affected by any operations yet carried on, and at one time during the Con- 
federate War 10,000 bushels of salt were made there every day for six 



428 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

months. The present yield is about 360,000 bushels a year, using wood 
for fuel. When improvements contemplated bring the coal that is but 40 
miles off to tliese works, there will be a very large amount of salt made 
here, as it has the advantage of being so far inland. 

The copper ores of Floyd Countj^ make it possible to here locate suc- 
cessfully alkali works. Professor Leibig mentions the fact that a well has 
been bored in Tazewell County, and adds: "It must be borne in mind 
that the salt wells of Eastern Kentucky get their water from the conglom- 
erate at the bottom of the coal measures." Therefore, there must be a 
salt-water bearing formation several hundred feet below the coal bed at the 
bottom of this lode. Salt has been made at works in the southeastern 
part of Lee County, on the waters of Clinch River. There is no doubt an 
abiindance of brine, throughout the region in the formation above named. 

Asbestos. 

Asbestos of good quality and workable quantity exists in the counties 
lying between the upper James and the upper Dan rivers, at several places, 
notably in Pittsylvania, Henry and Patrick, and latterly found in several 
other counties, very fine specimens of which can be seen in the cabinet of 
the Department of Agriculture. Asbestos in its various formations has 
been recently developed in Bedford County, and is found in large quanti- 
ties and of good quality. In the Blue Ridge division asbestos is found in 
conne6lion with most of the mineral formations. In Roanoke and Bote- 
tourt it is very white and pure, though the fibre is short. In Buckingham 
the fibre is very long and flexible, but the color is not so good, but the 
specimens were taken near the surface. It is said to have been found in 
Amelia, Fairfax, Fauquier, Patrick and Pittsylvania. 

SOAPSTONE. 

Steatite (soapstone) of fine quality for resisting the most intense heat, 
is found in Amelia, Albemarle, and some other counties of Middle and 
Piedmont Virginia. In Amelia a mine of steatite was successfully oper- 
ated a few miles from the county seat. One formation of it is very much 
like serpentine, and resists heat successfully. It is frequently called pot- 
stone, and was said to have been cut by the Indians into pots. Two veins 
are found in Campbell County, both crossing the James River from Amherst 
about ten miles apart. The western one is a beautiful green, cuts easily, 
and hardens by exposure, and makes handsome building stone. The east- 
ern vein is very light grey, polishes well, resists heat, and is much used 
for fire-places. Albemarle has large veins of steatite, which are being 
worked and marketed successfully at North Garden. The veins of steatite 
run across the state from northeast to southwest. They appear to follow 
a kind of glade formation, a few miles in width, though other veins are 
sometimes found outside this line. 



PHILIP IV. McKINNEY. 429 

Black Lead. 

Plumbago (black lead) is found in Amelia, Patrick, Amherst, Camp- 
bell, Loudoun, Louisa, Albemarle and other counties. Some deposits are 
very pure and large in quantity. It appears irregularly in different parts 
of the state. In some localities it has been tested by analysis, in otliers 
manufactured into pencils, and in others as a lubricant. 

Mica. 

The mica of Amelia has been more largely worked than any in Vir- 
ginia. It is very abundant, and mines have been profitably worked for 
some years past. In the vicinity of the county seat are the Rutherford, 
Jefferson and Pinchback mines. Others exist in the same locality, not yet 
in operation to much extent. It is also to some extent developed in 
Goochland, Henrico, Louisa, Pulaski, Powhatan and Hanover. Near 
Irwin station, in Goochland, the deposit is being worked, which is of the 
finest quality, and the largest sheets yet found. A recent report says that 
large quantities have been taken out and prepared for market. A similar 
deposit has been found and partially developed in Hanover. Both are 
very convenient to railroads. 

Gold. 

There is a well-defined belt of gold-bearing quartz running across the 
state through the Counties of Prince William, Stafford, Spotsylvania, Lou- 
isa, Fluvanna, Goochland, Btickingham, Prince Edward, Charlotte and 
Halifax. In many places on this belt mines have been opened from time 
to time, and worked with profit and success. With the progress of scien- 
tific improvement in the extraction of gold, it may fairly be expected that 
gold mining in Virginia will become an extensive industry. This precious 
metal has also been found in Montgomery County. And in the Blue 
Ridge range of mountains, in Roanoke and Patrick Counties, silver ores 
have recently been found that give promise of valuable results. 

Professor Stowe (from a letter written by him in 1873, just after his 
return from California and Colorado), regarding his estimate of the value 
of the Virginia mines, says: " I am now of the decided opinion that the 
ores of Virginia are the richest and easiest to work of any I have ever met. 
I have made over two hundred assays of ore from the Atlantic slope, and 
have visited in person many of the localities where gold is found, and I 
speak from fa6ts." This is a strong opinion coming from an expert min- 
ing engineer. 

Major Hotchkiss writes of this belt, including Buckingham : " Here 
is a mass of precious metal (enclosed in the rock) which cannot be ex- 
hausted for ages, and in this respect the region in question is the most 
important of all known deposits, California not excepted. ' ' The celebrated 
Overman (practical mineralogist) says : " We have here in Virginia a belt 



430 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

of gold of unparalleled extent, immense width, undoubtedly reaching to 
the primitive rock." In the earlier days very large nuggets were found 
by breaking up the qiiartz rocks with sledge-hanmiers. One of these, in 
Spotsylvania, sold for $438. It was not unusual for farmers, after they 
laid by their crops, to direct the overseer to take "the hands" and mine 
or wash for gold ; and there were times when thousands of dollars were 
made per annum this way. Stafford, Spotsylvania, Orange, Fluvanna, 
Goochland and Buckingham were regarded gold fields. In several, work 
is now going on. 

Pyrites. 

Immense mines of pyrites are worked in Ivouisa County, and the 
products shipped North, for the use of sulphuric acid manufactories. So 
important has this industry become, that branch railroads have been run 
to the mines from the main line of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad. 
Other large deposits exist in the mountain regions, bordering on North 
Carolina, but need a railroad for their development. New veins of this, 
the "fool's gold" of the Colonies, are being discovered, and developed, 
and opened in different parts of the State. Some are valuable for the 
gold and other metals found in these sulphurets, and this by-product 
taken in connection with the large quantity of sulphur found in all, and 
the increasing demand for sulphuric acid, is likely to turn this into a true 
gold so far as sure profit is concerned. Two fully developed and profitably 
worked mines are near Tolersvillc (Mineral City), in Louisa County. One, 
the Armenius mine, has been sunk over four hundred feet, and the Cren- 
shaw, the other mine, though not so deep, is fully worked. The b^-product 
, secured is native copper ore. Sulphuric acid is made in the City of 
Richmond, in two chemical works, for use in the manufacture of fertilizers. 
Large quantities are shipped North from the Armenius mines. Valuable 
veins of pyrite, bearing gold in fairly paying quantities, and probably 
other metals, have been found at other points in Louisa County, and in 
Spotsylvania, Fluvanna, Goochland, Buckingham and some other counties. 

BaryTES. 

The barytes of commerce (sulphate of barium) is found in many 
counties. It has been mined in Campbell and Bedford, and is ground in 
Lynchburg and shipped North. It is also found in the Southwest, abun- 
dantly in Smyth County. 

Limestone. 

Metamorphic limestones exist in the valley of James River, between 
Richmond and Lynchburg. Silurian limestone extends from the Potomac 
to Tennessee, in great variety. Since the discovery that building lime 
with a large percentage of the carbonate of magnesia, is a poor material to 



PHILIP IV. McKINNEY. 431 

use in the mortar of large buildings and other permanent works of 
masonry and brick, peculiar value attaches to beds of pure carbonate of 
lime. Such beds fortunately exist at convenient localities in the great 
Shenandoah Valley, and lime-burning is already carried on there at two 
points — Riverton, in Warren County, and Eagle Rock, in Botetourt — 
where an article is produced entirely free from magnesia, and is in great 
demand for city work, where the sulphurous fumes of coal combustion are 
so destructive to magnesian-lime mortar. As this pure limestone exists in 
many places, the industry is a rapidly-growing and a profitable one. 

Most excellent hydraulic cement has been produced for many years 
and in large quantity, at Balcony Falls, in Rockbridge County. The stoue 
is also found in Bedford, near Buford's Gap, but has not been utilized 
until recently. 

All the varioiis limestones, from the most common building-rock to 
the finest marble, are found in Virginia. Her dolamite limestone has been 
found so superior for fluxing certain iron ores, that it has been carried 
considerable distances by rail, in preference to using conmion limestone on 
the ground. Virginia may be said to be an agricultural lime State. 

The whole Valley has the best limestone for burning. The whole of 
Tidewater has shell (carbonate) marl. A good vein of limestone runs 
across Upper, Middle and Lower Piedmont. Several of the carbonate 
marls, mixed with clay, will, by being calcined, make cement like the 
Portland that is made in England. The travertine marl of the Valley, 
and the highly aluminous clays of thatsection, should make such cements 
very cheaply. 

Plaster (Gypsum.) 

On the waters of the north fork of Holston River, in the Counties of 
Smyth and Washington, there are many miles in length of an immense 
ledge of gypsimi, as pure as that brought from Nova Scotia. It has been 
penetrated to the depth of nearly 600 feet, and no bottom found. We 
have here a quantity of this valuable fertilizer, that is practical!)' exhaust- 
less for centuries to come. 

This massive deposit of gypsum, more than 600 feet thick, at Stuart 
and Buchanan's Cove, in Smyth County, shows conspicuously; also, at 
the Pearson Beds, and at Saltville, in Smyth County, and at Buena Vista, 
in Washington County. Many explorations and long continued examina- 
tions led to the belief, at last, that these vast gypsum deposits, showing 
for about 20 miles in length, really compose two or more regular strata of 
the sub-carboniferous rocks, and have a width, exposed and concealed, of 
one mile or more from the fault northward. It has been mined to the 
depth of about 180 feet at Saltville and Buena Vista, and its general com- 
position by analysis is as follows: Lime, 32.50; sulphuric acid, 46.50, 
and water, 20.50, showing traces of magnesia, alumina, and iron. 

Plaster for clover, grass, and tobacco is universalh^ used by the 
farmers of the Valley, Piedmont, and Upper Middle Virginia, sowed 



432 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

directly on the land— preferring ground plaster to calcined. Grinding 
plaster gives a number of mills to the State. Even the Nova Scotia that 
comes to the Eastern section is ground in the State. Smyth and Wash- 
ington Counties could furnish plaster for the country if they had deep- 
water transportation. 

Mari.. 

In many of the Tidewater counties enormous beds of blue and green 
sand marl and shells are found but a few feet below the surface, supplying 
a fertilizing material at a nominal cost, that is rapidly converting all that 
region into the garden spot of the continent for supplying the great cities 
of the Atlantic coast with table vegetables of the highest excellence, and 
is giving much importance to the peanut culture. A full description of 
the geological formation of this alluvial region would not be interesting to 
the unscientific reader, but it may be well to call attention to the difference 
between the marls of the more recent formations, 'Ca.^ pliocene and miocene, 
which derive their value mainly from the carbonate of lime which they 
contain, and the green sands and olive earths which are found in the 
eocene in conjunction with the shell or calcareous marl. (Green sand is 
sometimes found mixed with the marl of the miocene region.) 

The region of eocene marls extends from the falls of the rivers east- 
ward fifteen to twenty miles. Miocene marl is often found overlying the 
eocene, and is easily recognized by the difference in the shells which it 
contains — scallops and others not found in the eocene. ' ' Beneath this (Pro- 
fessor Rogers, quoted by Dr. Pollard, says), and usually separated from it 
by a thin line of 'black pebbles,' like those occurring on the Pamunkey, 
there occurs a stratum of greenish, red, and yellow aspect, containing much 
green sand and gypsum, the latter partly disseminated in small grains, 
and partly grouped in large crystals. The under stratum, rich in green 
sand and containing a few shells in friable condition, extends to some 
depth below the level of the river. At ' Evergreen ' the whole thickness 
of the deposit appears to be about twenty feet." 

This was said of the James River formation, but will apply as a gen- 
eral description to the deposits of the Pamunkey, Mattaponi, Rappahan- 
nock, and Potomac, as Professor Rogers says "eocene marl is there found 
very similar to that on the James. On the Mattaponi the occurrence of 
green sand strata has been ascertained in some places, while in others the 
beds containing the substance have been replaced by beds of clay, which 
are less likely to prove valuable agriculturally. The olive earth overlying 
some of these beds, particularly on the Pamunkey, seems to have lost 
some of the carbonate of lime which it once contained, and has but a small 
portion of gypsum." 

The agricultural report for 1888, speaking of Tidewater Virginia, 
says : Not only has this section been blessed with lime beds, brought up 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 433 

by all its streams from the ocean, placing this valuable deposit of miocene 
marl at its doors, but the Rappahannock, the North and South Annas, the 
James and Appomattox, rising in the felspar and hornblende ridges and 
valleys of Piedmont, and the black rock of Buckingham and Appomattox 
crossing through the pyrites and sulphur ledge, have brought down the pot- 
ash and mingled it with these sulphates, carrying them to meet the tide, 
bringing the shells and fossil bones from the ocean. These, and the dead 
marine animals and their coprolites, formed the eocene marl beds, where 
the sulphates and shells made sulphate of lime (plaster — the great Ruffin's 
" gypseous earth "), and the potash and fossils gave the green sand its 
agricultural value. 

The lands on the Pamunkey and James that were heavily marled with 
the Pamunkey and James River green sand, are fertile and productive 
today, although for more than twenty-five years they have had neither 
manure or fertilizer. These marls have been tested by chemical analysis 
and agricultural experience, and the value of Virginia shell marl as an 
agricultural lime, and the green sand marl as an active fertilizer, is put 
be3'ond the possibility of a doubt. 

There is considerable interest manifested now in the marl deposit 
of the State. The value of green sand as a basis for high-grade commer- 
cial fertilizers, and of the carbonate marls and adjacent clays for cements, 
has caused extensive investigation. There are works on James River and 
the Pamunkey, preparing green sand marl for sale, now in operation with 
good profit. 

Building Stone and Si.ate. 

Virginia stands first among the States in the variety and beauty of her 
building stones, beginning with her granites and slates in Eastern Vir- 
ginia, and extending to her limestones in the West, her brownstones in the 
Eastern counties, her marbles in Bedford, Russell, and Scott Counties, and 
ending with the beavitiful sandstones of the Southwestern coal field, in half- 
dozen counties. 

Virginia can make an exhibit in this line of which any country might 
be proud. At Petersburg are beautiful light and dark granites, in inex- 
haustible quarries. At Richmond and Manchester, on opposite sides of 
James River, at the head of tide, are the great quarries that stood the test 
of stone made by the Government for the Naval Department at Washing- 
ton. At Fredericksburg is fine granite, and near there the beautiful white 
sandstone of which the "White House" was built. The brown sandstone 
of Prince William, Botetourt, Nelson, Craig, and Albemarle will compare 
favorably with the best anywhere. 

Roofing slate of excellent quality is found on both sides of James River. 
That found in Buckingham, near New Canton, on Slate River, yields slate 
that compares favorably with the best qualities of imported material, both 
in density, texture, and capacity for resisting atmospheric changes. The 

XXIX 



434 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

Capitol and University buildings have been covered with this slate, and 
the quarries have been extensively worked. The rock splits with great 
regularity and may be separated with iron wedges into sheets of loo square 
feet, not more than one inch thick. 

In Nelson County, on Rockfish and near the mouth of Tye River, a 
true' marble is found, of beautiful quality, whiteness, and texture, which 
renders it susceptible of taking the highest polish. This marble is easily 
worked with the chisel. In Campbell, a few miles from Lynchburg, a 
good marble is found. Limestone is also abundant. Amherst and Albe- 
marle have slate quarries, which have been worked, furnishing good roofing 
and admirable furniture slate. Loudoun has the finest white marble, and 
Botetourt the finest black marble, yet discovered in the State. Litho- 
graphic stone has been found and tested in the James River valley, in the 
Counties of Botetourt, Rockbridge, and Alleghany, and a species of steatite 
of beautiful green stone suitable for building has been found in several 
counties. Virginia abounds in most valuable building stones. 

Kaoun. 

Kaolin has been discovered in Amelia, Fauquier, Fluvanna, Pow- 
hatan, Loiiisa, Chesterfield, Amherst, Nelson, and other counties. It has 
been developed and analyzed in several of the counties, but it is not 
worked to any extent or mined. By both analyses and working tests Vir- 
ginia kaolin has been found to be of high quality. 

FiRE-ClvAYS. 

Fire-clay has been found developed and is being worked in Chester- 
field, at Robious; at Dorset, in Powhatan ; at Buena Vista, in Rockbridge, 
and very fine bricks were on exhibition at the Virginia State fair recently. 
Vitrified brick is made at Chilhowie, in Smyth County, and clay has been 
found and developed in Louisa County. There are fine tile and brick 
works at Chester ; terra-cotta and porcelain works at Strasburg, in the 
Valley, and Virginia has in large quantity the finest clays of every variety. 
Clays and marl are found in close proximity, and in some places inter- 
mixed, which, calcined, make a fine cement, like the Portland and 
Roman. 

MiNERAi, Springs. 

There are numerous mineral springs in Virginia, varying in many 
particulars, and they are all valuable. Many of these springs are popu- 
lar resorts for pleasure seekers from all parts of the country. Professor 
Rogers says in his geological report: "The thermal waters appear to be 
indebted for their impregnation to rocks of a calcareous nature, while the 
sulphuretted springs derive their ingredients mostly from the pyritous 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 435 

slate, and that the Warm and Hot Springs discharge a considerable amount 
of free gas, consisting of carbonic acid and nitrogen." 

Grouped, as these springs are, at a moderate distance apart, present- 
ing, within the same district, a variety of medicinal character, for which, 
in other countries, regions remote from each other require to be visited 
in succession, placed at a point equally accessible to the inhabitant of the 
sea-board and the great valley of the West, and situated in a region of 
grateful summer temperature, of a salubrious climate, and of picturesque 
and diversified natural beauties, they are now rapidly attaining a celeb- 
rity and are destined ere long to vie witli the long established " character 
of the most noted watering places of the world. ' ' 

CUMATE. 

Virginia, as a whole, lies in the region of " middle latitudes," between 
36° 30' and 39° 30' North, giving it a climate of "means" between the 
extremes of heat and cold incident to States south and north of it. 

If Virginia were a plain, the general character of the climate of the 
whole State would be much the same; but the "relief" of its surface 
varies, from that of some of its large peninsulas not more than ten or fifteen 
feet above the sea level, to that of large valleys more than two thousand feet 
above that level. Long ranges of mountains from three thousand to four 
thousand feet in height run entirely across the State, and the waters flow 
to all points of the compass. So diversified are the features of the surface 
of the State, within its borders may be found all possible exposures to the 
sun and general atmospheric movements. It follows from these circum- 
stances that here must be found great variety of temperature, winds> 
moisture, rain and snowfall, beginning and ending of seasons, and all the 
periodical phenomena of vegetable and animal life, depending on "the 
weather." 

The winds are the great agents nature employs to equalize and dis- 
tribute temperature, moisture, etc. Virginia lies on the eastern side of 
the American continent and on the western shore of the Atlantic Ocean. 
It extends to and embraces many of the ranges of the Appalachian system 
of mountains, that run parallel to that ocean shore; therefore, it is subject 
not only to the general movement of winds, storms, etc., from west to 
east, peculiar to the region of the United States, but to modifications of 
that movement by tlie great mountain ranges. It is also subject to the 
great atmospheric movements from the Atlantic that, with a rotary 
motion, come up from the Tropics and move along the coast, extending 
their influence over the Tidewater and Middle regions of the State ; some- 
times across Piedmont to the foot of the Blue Ridge, but rarely ever over 
or be3'ond that range. The numberless lines of mountains from the Blue 
Ridge to the Cumberland, all the way across its extent from up in Penn. 
sylvania down into North Carolina unbroken, protect the State against 
the cold winds, and storms, and blizzards of the Northwest. This barrier is 



436 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

absolutely effectual ; they never reach this land. The peculiar formation 
of the Appalachian chain running southwest into South Carolina and 
Georgia, with ranges bearing west into Tennessee and Alabama, protect us 
from the cyclones that form in the heated waters of the Gulf and rush 
northeast. The formation of the southern end of this range of mountains 
turns the southwest storms and tornadoes either up the Cumberland range 
northeast or across the Gtdf States to the Atlantic Ocean. It has also sur- 
face winds, usually from the Southwest, that follow the trend of the mount- 
ains and bring to them and their enclosed parallel valleys the warmth and 
moisture of the Gulf that clothes them all with an abundant vegetation. 

The same causes that produced the magnificent forests of the carbon- 
iferous era and furnished the materials for the vast deposits of coal in the 
sixty thousand square miles of the great Appalachian coal field that flanks 
Virginia on the west, still operate and clothe the surface of the same 
region with an abundant vegetation. The laws of the winds make one 
region fertile and another barren. America owes its distinction as the 
Forest Continent to the situation of its land masses in reference to the pre- 
vailing winds. 

Guyot, a standard authority, says: " North America has in the east- 
ern half a greater amount of rain than either of the other Northern conti- 
nents in similar latitudes." . . "The great sub-tropical basin of the 
Gulf of Mexico sends up into the air its wealth of vapors to replace those 
lost by the winds in crossing the high mountain chains. Hence, the east- 
ern portions — the great basins of the Mississippi, and the St. Lawrence, and 
the Appalachian region — which, without this source of moisture, would be 
doomed to drought and barrenness, are the most abundantly watered and 
the most productive portions of the continent." " In the eastern half of 
the United States the southwesterly winds which prevail in the summer 
spread over the interior and the Atlantic plains an abundant supply of 
vapors from the warm waters of the Gulf. Frequent, copious showers 
refresh the soil during the months of greatest heat, which show a maxi- 
mum of rain. Thiis the dry summers of the warm- temperate region dis- 
appear, and with them the periodical character of the rains so well marked 
elsewhere in this belt. ' ' 

These quotations show the advantages Virginia has, in this respect, 
over the warm-temperate regions of Europe and elsewhere. 

Forests. 

The forests of Virginia are large, and the timber varied, and the lumber 
trade important, and the following is a fair catalogue of the trees of Vir- 
ginia now growing wild in the different sections : 

The oaks: White oak, post oak, swamp white oak, chestnut oak, 
yellow oak, red oak, scarlet oak, black oak, black-jack oak, Spanish oak, 
pin oak, willow oak, bear oak, bastard live oak, scrub white oak, water 
oak, turkey oak. 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 437 

The pines : The table mountain pine, white pine, pitch pine, Jersey 
scrub pine, yellow pine, loblolly pine, hemlock pine. 

Cypress, juniper, bay laurel, red cedar, white cedar (arbor vitee), 
umbrella tree, white wood (white poplar), yellow poplar, Lombardy pop- 
lar, pawpaw (custard apple), linden, fringe tree, catalpa, sassafras, slippery 
elm, red ehn, water elm, winged elm, sugar berry, horn beam, red mul- 
berry, white mulberry, moris multicualis, sycamore, black walntit, white 
walnut (butternut), shellbark hickory, white hickory, red (mochermes) 
hickory, pignut hickory, butternut hickory, chinquepin, chestnut, beech, 
water beech, ironwood, cherry birch, red birch, black alder, holly, sugar ma- 
ple, red maple, curled maple, bird-eye maple, box elder or ash-leaved maple, 
stag horn (sumac), poison elder (thunder tree), common locust, yellow 
(mountain) locust, honey locust, red bud (Judas tree), wild pkun (Prunus 
Americanus), wild cherry — red (P. Penna), wild cherry — black (P. Scro- 
tina), nine bark (Spirea Opulofolia), southern crab, scarlet fruited thorn, 
wild currant (June or Service berry), witch hazel, sweet gum, swamp 
dogwood, ailanthus (Paradise), black gum, black haw, laurel (ivy), rose 
bay (rhododendron), persimmon, white ash, black willow, weeping 
willow, white willow, golden willow, silky willow, aspen, dogwood, lash- 
horn, cucumber, Cottonwood, buckeye ash, swamp huckleberry, hazelnut, 
paulonia, silver maple, spicewood, yew, paper mulberry. 

Fr^owERS. 

The flowers which cover the untilled fields, and bloom and blush 
unseen in forest dells, form no small part of the beai^ty which makes this 
land of blue mountains and silvery streams "the fairest land the sun 
shines on." 

In springtime every stream is fringed with blooming flowers and 
white banners wave on every breeze. Wild roses, ferns, rhododendrons, 
forest pinks, and wood violets spring up everywhere, while daisies and 
yellow buttercups line every pathway. Of cultivated flowers, everything 
grows in the open air that can be raised in a temperate climate. 

Fruits. 

Every portion of the State is remarkabl)^ well adapted to the growth 
of fruits that belong to the warm-temperate and temperate climates. 

In Tidewater Virginia, apples, pears, peaches, quinces, plums, cher- 
ries, nectarines, grapes, figs, strawberries, raspberries, running and bush 
blackberries, gooseberries, currants and other fruits thrive and produce 
abundantly, the quality of the products being unsurpassed, as the awards 
of the American Pomological Society attest. The value of the small fruits 
alone, annually sent to market from Tidewater, is more than the sums for 
orchards and gardens. The trade in early strawberries is one of large 
proportions. Especial mention should be made of the wild Scuppernong 



438 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

grapes, peculiar to the Tidewater country near the sea, which spread over 
the forests, and bear large crops of excellent fruit, from which a very 
palatable wine is made. The originals of the Catawba, Norton's Virginia, 
and other esteemed American grapes grow wild in the forests of Vir- 
ginia. 

All the fruits named above grow in every section of the State, except, 
perhaps, figs. Piedmont, the Blue Ridge, and the Valley are famous 
apple regions. Peaches flourish in all sections, but Middle and Tidewater 
may claim some precedence in adaptability. The Blue Ridge is entitled 
to the name of the "fruit belt," and its extensive area is yet to become 
the most noted wine and fruit-producing section of the United States east 
of the Rocky Mountains. All the fruits of Virginia flourish there in a 
remarkable manner, and find special adaptations of soil, climate, and 
exposure. 

Cereai^s, Cotton, Tobacco. 

The flora of Virginia is rich and abundant. Cereals, grasses, and 
other plants that have been introduced have found favorable soil and cli- 
mate. Here grow and yield abundantly "plants good for food" and 
suited for needed manufactures. A comparison of the production of 
cereals with the products of other countries presents Virginia in a most 
favorable light, while nearness to market gives a most decided advantage. 
The climate and soil of Virginia favor the growth of nearly all the useful 
and profitable productions of the world. Wheat, corn, rye, buckwheat 
and Indian corn are raised in abundance. It is the native home of 
tobacco, and from it planters, manufacturers and the general government 
realize large siims of money. 

Cotton is grown in the southern section, and in all parts of the State 
cultivated grasses are successfully grown, and in some parts of the State 
the native grasses make the best grazing. Commodore Maury (good 
authority) says: " Everything which can be cultivated in France, Ger- 
many, or England, may be grown here equally as well, with other things 
besides, such as Indian corn, cotton, tobacco, peanuts, broom corn, and 
sweet potatoes, etc., which are not known as staples there. The climate 
and soil of Virginia are as favorable to the cultivation of the grape and the 
manufacture of wine, as they are in France and Germany. 

Tobacco is a staple product of Virginia. "The Virginia Leaf" is 
known the world over for its excellence — the result of manipulation as 
well as soil and climate. Piedmont and Middle Virginia lands are best for 
the growth of good tobacco ; those of Middle Virginia produce the finest 
tobacco and most valuable ; Tidewater is the region of Cuba and L,atakia 
varieties, while immense crops of coarse, heavy tobacco are raised in the 
upper Counties on the rich lands of the Blue Ridge, the Valley, and Appa- 
lachia. Virginia tobacco cannot be substituted either by new methods, 
new varieties, or adulteration ; it will always, in a series of years, maintain 



PHILIP W. McKINNEY. 439 

its positiou of superiority in foreign markets. Whenever all restrictions and 
burdens are removed from tobacco, Virginia's brights, her sweet-fillers, and 
her rich shipping will assert their natural superiority and receive again the 
chief place in the market. 

Fisheries. 

The crab fisheries still continue a frviitful source of revenue to the 
people in a limited area of the Chesapeake. The earnings from this 
source, reckoned on the basis of men employed and capital invested, 
exceed slightly that derived from oysters, and the business seems to be 
growing larger and larger every year. 

Black bass, silver, white, and sun perch, southern, white, and horned 
chub, mullet, carp, pike, suckers, flat-back gar, mason, and whitesides, 
and eels can be found of good size in the rivers. Tidewater, independent 
of the great herring, shad, and menhaden fisheries (where 100,000 are 
caught at a haul), has a fine list of table fish caught and shipped to market 
the same day-^-sturgeon, rock, sheepshead, hogfish, trout, mullet, spots, 
bass, chub, Spanish mackerel, bluefish, croker, halibut, and others. 

The fish, like the friait of Virginia, has the advantage of an earlier 
opening than the North has for marketing. Oysters are found in all the 
tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast, giving to 
Tidewater an exclusive territory, where this valuable shell-fish grows 
naturally, and where it can be propagated and reared in almost anv 
desired quantity. 

Major Hotchkiss, in his work on Virginia, says that it is estimated 
that more than 15,000,000 bushels are taken annually from the beds of 
Tidewater Virginia, valued at from $12,000,000 to $15,000,000. In 1869 
over 5,000 small boats and 1,000 vessels, of over five tons burthen, were 
employed in taking oysters from the water, and 193 State and 309 other 
vessels, 18,876 tons aggregate burthen, were engaged in carrying them to 
market. For some 3'ears the supply has been growing less and the 
demand greater. Under the present system of depletion, the supply will 
soon be inadequate to the demand, and the prices will be higher. The 
person who has a well-stocked oyster shore can command ready sale, at 
good prices. There is no reason why the artificial propagation of oysters 
should not be conducted on a larger scale. In France there are oyster 
farms that pay an annual profit of $500 or $600 per acre. Virginia's 
Lynnhaven and Chesapeake stand at the head of the list for market, while 
others claim equal excellence. Just now there is much discussion about 
protecting the natural beds, and larger planting, if necessary, for increas- 
ing the revenue of the State. 

Many interesting details of the fruits, vegetable produc- 
tions, animals, poultry, birds, and much of importance con- 



440 THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA. 

cerning the manufadluring and mining growth of the State 
could well be cited, but, enough has been revealed of her 
material resources in the above extracfts to foreshadow her 
wealth and power, and to confirm the glowing description of 
an earlier day, given by Ralegh to England's Queen when 
she first called the land — " Virginia." 



THE END. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE A. 

Ou a bust in the Capitol at Rome is this inscription : 

"Christoforo Colombo, 
Nato MCCCCXIvII.— Morto MDVI." 

Christopher Columbus was the eldest sou of Domenico Colombo, a 
wool comber, and Susanna Fontanarossa Colombo, and was born in 
Genoa, Italy, 1442. He early evinced au inclination for the sea, and his 
education was mainly directed to fit him for maritime pursuits. Besides 
ordinary branches, he studied Latin and Drawing", and for a time devoted 
himself to Geometry, Geography, Astronomy and Navigation, at the Uni- 
versity of Pavia. When about fourteen years, old he began his nautical 
career, and spent many years at sea, but of his experiences at this period 
history is silent. About 1470 he went to L,isbon, and supported himself 
by making maps and charts. Here he married Dona Felipa, daughter of 
Bartolommeo Mofiis de Perestrello, an Italian Cavalier and distinguished 
Navigator, who had colonized and governed the Island of Porto Santo. 
On this island Columbus now resided, where his wife had inherited some 
property, and here his son Diego was born. At this time Columbus 
devoted his life to study, and the papers, charts and journals which had 
been left by his father-in-law, were his daily companions. He also was 
brought into constant contact with persons interested in maritime discov- 
ery, and upon the Island of Porto Santo, he determined upon sailing 
West, hoping to reach India by a new passage. We will pass over his 
l<1ng period of discipline in waiting, until we see him under the auspices 
of Spain setting sail from the roads of Saltez, near Palos, on Friday 
morning, August 3, 1492, in the Santa Maria, carrying with him also the 
Pinta and the Nuia. On Friday, October 12, 1492, the New World was 
discovered. 

Columbus made three voyages to the New World, and on the last 
went to Hispaniola to recruit his enfeebled health. His great distinction 
had excited the jealousy of many enemies, and his pathway ever since 
"The Discovery" had been strewn with thorns. Now, at Hispaniola, in his 
eflForts to re-organize the unsettled Colony which he had previously planted, 
he was actively misrepresented by envy and malice. 

A commissioner sent by Spain to inquire into the difficulties, put 

4-11 



443 APPENDIX. 

Columbus in chains and sent him to his sovereign a manacled, insulted 
invalid. "Are you taking me to death?''' inquired Columbus, when they 
led him from his cell to put him on the ship which was to carry him to 
Spain ; saying further : 

"If twelve years' hardship and fatigue; if continued dangers and 
frequent famine ; if the ocean first opened, and five times passed and 
repassed to add a New World abounding iwith wealth to the Spanish 
monarchy ; and if an infirm and premature old age brought on by those 
services, deserve these chains as a reward, it is very fit I should wear them 
to Spain and keep them by me as memorials to the end of my life." 

"I always saw those irons in his room," says his son Ferdinand, 
" which he ordered to be buried with his body." 

Columbus is described as of good figure, of tall, commanding stature; 
of a long visage and majestic aspect. He was greatly skilled in Navigation, 
was a man of undaunted courage and fond of hazardous undertakings. A 
distinguished Spanish historian says that "if in ancient times he had per- 
formed such an enterprise as the discovery of a New World, not only 
would temples and statues have been erected in his honor, but some star 
would have been dedicated to him as there was to Hercules." 

Exhausted by age, fatigues and disappointments, Columbus died at 
Valladolid in the sixty-fifth year of his age, on Ascension Day, May 20th, 
1506, saying with his last breath, " lyord, into Thy hands I commend my 
spirit." His corpse was removed to Seville and buried in the Cathedral of 
that city with great funeral pomp, and by order of King Ferdinand, 
"whose jealousy his death had extinguished," he was honored with a mar- 
ble monument upon which was engraven the following : 

" A Castilla Y A Leon 
Nuevo Mondo Dio Colon." 

"To Castille and to Leon Columbus gave a New World." 
But, death did not end the voyages of the great Navigator. It is said 
that he had requested to have his remains taken to Santo Domingo, and 
accordingly in 1536, they were deposited in the Cathedral of that island ; 
thence they were conveyed with great ceremony in 1796 to the CathedAl 
of Havana, where they now repose. 



NOTE B. 

In the early part of the 15th century of our Lord, Venice was at the 
climax of her power. For long years she had been the centre of trade 
between Asia and Europe, and by conquest, by voluntary submission and 
by cession, the fairest portions of the Eastern Enipire were under her 
sway. Most of the carrying ti'ade of the world was in her hands. 

So with pride, no doubt, Cabot now unfurled the flag of this Republic, 



APPENDIX. 443 

looking back to the wealth, population and greatness of his adopted 
home; and remembering in this forest-clad realm of Nature the magnificent 
palaces and noble works of Art which enriched the superb City of Venice, 
with prophetic arm he raised the Republican banner of St. Mark beside 
the royal standard of St. George. 



NOTE C. 

No book bearing " Virginia " upon its title-page should fail in tribute 
to two of her noble sons, whose names, though glittering on the roll of 
honor, do not find place among her Chief Executives — Robert E. Lee and 
" Stonewall Jackson " — tliose bright, resplendent forms, who, standing by 
their Mother State, her garments crimson with the blood of battle, have 
linked their fame imperishably with her history. 

ROBERT EDWARD LEE, 

BORN 

At "Stratford," Westmoreland County, Virginia, 

January 19, 1807, 

DIED 

At Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia, 
Odlober 12, 1870. 
\ 



^ THOMAS JONATHAN JACKSON, 

BORN 

At Clarksburg, Harrison County, Virginia, 
January 21, 1824, 

DIED 

Of wounds received at Chancellorsville, Virginia, 
May 10, 1863. 

Eloquence, rhetoric, poetry, sculpture, painting, tears — every avenue 
through which the mind and heart can give expression, has been exhausted 
in paying honor to these renowned men. Great in war were both — great 
in a soldier's death the one, and great in conquering fate, the other. 
Enshrined forever are they in the faithful hearts of the devoted people 
each loved and served " unto life's end." 



NOTE D. 



During Governor Walker's term the following Act was also passed, viz. : 
"An Act to provide for the Publication of the New Edition of the Code of 
Virginia. In force, March 25, 1873." 



444 APPENDIX. 

This new edition of the Code of Virginia in 1873 was rendered neces- 
sary by causes which may be briefly enumerated here in the language of 
another. They refer to the situation in Virginia after the year i860 : 

" The entire change in the organic law since that period ; the revolu- 
tion through which the Commonwealth has passed; the dissolution of the 
connection with the government of the United States by the ordinance of 
the secession convention ; her independent existence prior to her union 
with the government of the Confederate States; her subsequent union 
with that government, and the adoption of its Constitution ; the continu- 
ation of the State Government at Richmond during the whole war; the 
successful establishment of the restored government for the State, at 
Wheeling ; the action of its legislative and executive authorities there ; 
the Ordinances and Acts of the convention at Wheeling ; the organization 
of the State of West Virginia within the established boundaries of this 
State ; the assent of the restored government to the formation of the new 
State, and its final reception into the Union by the Congress of the United 
States, recognizing the dismemberment of the State, and authorizing the 
representation of the new State in the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives ; the removal of the restored government from Wheeling to Alexan- 
dria ; the Acts of the I^egislature there ; the assembling of a convention, 
which adopted a new Constitution for the government of the State under 
these auspices ; the resumption of the powers and functions of the restored 
government at the close of hostilities in the City of Richmond, sustained 
and supported by the Federal troops ; the subsequent destruction of that 
government under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress, subjecting the 
State to military rule and authority as Military District No. i ; the permis- 
sion given by Congress to the State to form again a new Constitution, and 
the authority granted to elect members to a convention for that purpose ; 
the action of that convention by its ordinances and resolutions ; the sub- 
mission of that Constitution for approval to Congress ; the proclamation of 
the President of the United States extending to the people the right to 
ratify or reject the Constitution itself, or specified clauses in that Con- 
stitution ; the ratification of the Constitution by the people, and the rejec- 
tion of the two clauses submitted to them ; the approval of the Constitu- 
tion afterwards by Congress, upon condition of the adoption of the four- 
teenth and fifteenth amendments to the Federal Constitution, and of cer- 
tain other provisions ; the final reception of Senators and Representatives 
from this State in Congress, and the action of the General Assembly since, 
to adapt the laws of the State to the new Constitution, fundamentally 
changing the political and civil structure of the government." 

As special interest will alwaj'S attach to the " Reconstrudlion Period," 
reference is herewith made to Code of Virginia, 1873, Vol. i., where an 
historical synopsis of much valuable information connedted with that era 
may be found. 



INDEX. 



Abraham, Pi^ains of, 175 

Acadie, 56 

Act abolishing the "whipping post," 398 

Act ceding to the United States the lands on Old Point Comfort, 332 

Act extending thanks of General Assembly to Attorney-General, etc., 402 

Act for the cession of ten miles square for the permanent seat of the gen- 
eral government, 285 

Act for building a church in each parish, 115 

Act imposing diity on tea, by Great Britain, 188, 201 

"Act of ludcmquitie, made att the Surrender of the Countrey," 103 

Act of non-intercourse with England and France, 253 

Act, the Stamp, 176, 177; Address and Resolutions against, 177, 178, 179, 
180, 185, 199, 201 

Act to indemnify Thomas Nelson, etc., 260 

Act to provide for the settlement of public debt, 405 

Act to ratify the Joint Resolution of Congress, passed February 27, 1S69, 
proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, 3S9 

Act to ratify the Joint Resolution of Congress, passed June 16, 1866, pro- 
posing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of 
America, 388 

Adt of the General Assembly of Virginia, accepting the County of Alexan- 
dria to be an integral portion of the Commonwealth, 361 

Adams, John, 203, 249, 250; died, 255 

Adams, Samuel, 203 

Alien and Sedition Laws, 299 

Alexandria, address to General Washington, by citizens of, 291 

Alexandria Lodge, 282 ; Alexandria Washington Lodge, 282 

Alexander VI., 84 

America, 26, 184, 188 

America, Central, culture of, 2 

America, North, by Behring Strait, 2, 6, 12, 22 

American Antiquarian Society, 29 

Americas, Three, 2 

Amherst, Sir Jeffrey, Governor, 181 

Amidas, Philip, sailed from England, 12, 13 

Andros, Sir Edmund, Governor, 130, 132; Charter Oak, 134 

446 



446 INDEX. 

Apollo room, 195 

Argall, Samuel, 48, 55; Lieutenant-Governor, 56 

Arnold, Benedidl, 244, 245 

"Articles at the Surrender of the Countrie " to the Commonwealth of 
England, 100, 102 

"Articles for the surrendring Virginia to the subjedlion of the Parlia- 
ment of the Common Wealth of England, agreed uppon," etc., 102, 103 

Articles, Instrudlions and Orders for the Government of the Colonies, 24 

Asia, 1,3; Western, potentates of, 2 

B 

Bacon, Nathaniel, 107; President of the Council, 128, 129 

Bacon's Rebellion, 117, 139 

Bainbridge, Captain, 251 

Baltimore, Lord, patent for Maryland, 91 

Baltimore, City of, 293 

Bancroft, 17, 40, 83, 169 ; extra6ls from, 194, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216 

Barbour, James, Governor, 321 ; W. Wirt's tribute to James Waddell, 321 ; 
inscription on tomb, 325 

Barbour, County of, 325 

Barlow, Arthur, sailed from England, 12, 13 

Barron, Commodore, 252 

Bennet, Richard, Ading-Governor under Cromwell, 100 

Berkeley, County of, 193 

Berkeley, Norborne, Baron de Botetourt, Governor, 187 

Berkeley, Sir William, Governor, 95, 98, 113, 114 ; protest against Naviga- 
tion A(5l by Colonists, sent to, 114, 117, 118, 119, 123 

Bermuda Hundred, 51 

Bernard, William, 107 

Beverley, Robert, 160, 296 

Bill of Rights, 226 

Blair, James, 133 ; President of the Covmcil, 156 

Blair, John, President of the Council, 173 

Blair, John, 237, 282 

Bland MS., 125 

Bland, Richard, 188 

Bloody Run, 118 

Boston Harbor, 188; Town of, 194, 201 ; Port Bill, 195, 201, 202, 233 

Botetourt, County of, 193, 24S 

Braddock, General, 170 

Brandy wine, battle of, 287 

Braxton, Carter, 188 

Brooke, Robert, Governor, 295 ; Grand Master of Grand Lodge, 297 

Brooke, County of, 297 



INDEX. 447 

Buckner, John, 125 

Burr, Aaron, 250, 252, 308, 310, 311 

Burt, Augustus Austen, S3 

Burwell, Lewis, 129; President of the Council, 166; married Mary Willis, 

167 
Burwell, Nathaniel, 283 



Cabell, William H., Governor, 310; Resolutions of Respect to the 

memory of, 311 ; County of Cabell, 312 
Cabot and his sons, 5 

Cabot, John, patent conferred, 5 ; Cabots, 7 
Camm, President of William and Mary College, 191 
Cameron, William Ewan, Governor, 397 
Campbell, David, Governor, 346; military experiences, 347 
Campbell, John, Earl of Loudoun, Governor, 172 
Canada, 175 
Cape Breton, 175 
Carolina, 12; North, 18 
Carr, Dabney, 194 
Carter, Charles, 292 

Carter, Robert, President of the Council, 152; called "King Carter," 152 
Gary, Archibald, 188 
Charles I., 98 

Charles II., 98 ; Coronation Robe of Virginia Silk, 105, 123 
Charles Cape, named, 28 
Charles City County, 270 
Charlotte County, 238 ; Court House, 238 
Charlottesville, 245 

Charter, First, 23 ; Second, 33 ; Third, 49 
Charter Oak, 134 

Chesapeake Bay, 18, 21, 28, 33, 47, 51, 91, 204, 225 
Chesapeake, the frigate, 252 

Chicheley, Sir Henry, Deputy-Governor, 121, 122, 124 
Chew's House, 258 
Chickahominy, 33 
Christian, William, 207 
Church Hill, 197, 205 
Church, St. John's, 197, 205 

Civil Rights Bill, protest against the passage of, 392 
Claiborne, Richard, 102, 107 
Clinton, George, 251 
Clinton, Sir Henry, 289 



448 INDEX. 

College, Princeton, 287 

College, William and Mary, Charter granted, 129, 131, 133 ; burned, 137, 

156, 157. 173. 186, 191, 199, 200, 240, 254, 257, 284, 300, 310, 313, 326^ 

336, 338, 342, 344, 356 
Columbus, Christopher, 3; discovered America, 4, 84, 143; (Note A), 441 
Commissioner of Agriculture for Virginia (Thomas Whitehead), extracts 

from report of, 413 
Committee of Safety, 211, 225 
Continent, American, races and nations, i, 4 
Continent, Western, bears witness, i 
Copley, Sir Ljonel, 130 
Corbin, Henry, 139, 162 
Corbin, Lettice, 162 
Cornstalk, 196 

Cornwallis, Lord, 190, 211, 245, 260, 290 
Counties in Virginia, list of, 26S, 269 
Cresap, Captain Michael, 196 
Croatoan, 22 

Cromwell, Oliver, 98, 104, 112 
Culpeper, Thomas (Lord), Governor, 123, 124, 125 
Curtis, Edmond, 102 

D 

Dale, Sir Thomas, 47, 50; Acting-Governor, 51, 54 

Dandridge, Nathaniel West, 223 

Dare, Mrs., daughter in Roanoke, first English child born in the country, 

baptized " Virginia," 21 
Decatur, Stephen, 251 

Declaration of Rights, by people of Virginia, 216, 217 
Delaware, 188 

De la Warr, 45 ; Governor, 47, 56, 57 
De Jarnette, 83 

Digges, Edward, President of the Council, 105 
Dinwiddle, Robert, Lieutenant-Governor, 168, 169, 170, 279 
Douglas, George Hamilton, Governor, 135 
Dresser, Rev. Mr., 276 

Drysdale, Hugh, Lieutenant-Governor, 151 ; slave trade, 151 
Dumfries, 287 
Dunmore, County of, 193 ; Lord, 224, 225 



Eastern Confederacy Pi^ot, 307 
Egypt, some idea of Ancient World, i 



INDEX. 449 

Elizabeth City, 93 

Elizal)eth, Queen of England, sent out Martin Frobisher, 6, 7 ; named 

Virginia, 13, 15, 19 
England, flag of, 5, 6; mfiriners of, 12; Church of, 18, 25, 84, 86, 187, 

188 ; Treaty of Peace with, 249, 253 
Ensenore, Indian King, 19 
Europe, 3, 4, 14 



Fauquier, Francis, Lieutenant-Governor, 175 

Federalists, 249, 250, 253, 299 

Fincastle, George, Lord, 193 ; County of, 193 

Fleming, Colonel, 196 

Fleming, William, 248 

Flags of the American States, 233 

Floyd, John Buchanan, Governor, 363 ; description of Washington Monu- 
ment, 363 ; Major-General in Confederate States Army, 364 

Floyd, John, Governor, 340; "Southampton Insurrection," 340; County 
named after, 341 

Fort Duquesne, 175 

Fortress Monroe, 333 

France, 4, 252, 253, 256, 308, 327 

Franklin, Benjamin, 249 

Frederick, County of, 193 



Gates, Sir Thomas, 23, 44, 45 ; Deputy-Governor, 46, 51 ; Acting- 
Governor, 53 

George II., died, 176 

Georgia, 186 

George, Mt., 143 

General Assembly, First, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 
73. 74, 75. 76, 77. 78, 79. 80, 81, 82, 83 

Gennanna, 142 

Gennantown, battle of, 258, 287 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, patent to, 6, 7, 15, 16 

Giles, William B., Governor, 338 ; County named after, 339 

Gilmer, Thomas Walker, Governor, 349 ; dissatisfaction with the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia, and resignation, 350 

Gorges, Sir Fcrdinando. 23, 29, 34 

Gosnold, Bartholomew, 28, 32 
XXX 



u^ -'^ 

^''^' ■ 



450 INDEX. » 

Gooch, William, I^ieutenant-Govenior, 154 ; Boundary Line between 
Virginia and North Carolina, 154, 159 

Great Bridge, battle of, 198, 225 

Great Britain, 252, 327 

Greene, Nathaniel, General, 291, 294 

Gregory, John M., Governor, 356; Judge of Sixth Judicial Circuit of Vir- 
ginia, 357 

Grenville, Sir Richard, 19 

Griggsby, Mr., 271 

Grymes, Philip, 257 

Guiana, 17, 18 

H 



HakIvUyt, Richard, 23, 30, 55 

Hamilton, Alexander, 249, 308 

Hampton Roads, 244, 252, 253 

Hancock, John, 200 

Hanover, Court House, 221 ; County of, 224, 225, 226, 261 

Harrison, Benjamin, 207 ; Governor, 270, 271 ; Proclamation, etc., 271 

Harrison, William Henry, 271 

Harvey, Sir John, Governor, 91, 93 

Henry, Cape, named, 28 

Henry, County of, 224 

Henry, Patrick, 176, 188, 194, 197, 199, 203 ; extract from speech, 205, 206, 
207 ; 218 ; Governor, 220, 237 ; described by William Wirt, 239 ; Gen- 
eral Henry Lee's obituary on, 239 ; Governor, 273 ; will, 276, 299 

Henry, William Wirt, 42, 277 

Henrico City, 51 

Hening, 27, 49, 85, 100, 105, 106, 107, 113, 114, 117, 118, 152, 161, 167, 207, 
248 

Holliday, Frederick W. M., Governor, 394; wounded at the Battle of 
Cedar Run, 395 ; published addresses, 395, 396 

Holmes, Abiel, 39 

Howard, Francis, Lord (Baron Effingham), Lieutenant-Governor, 127; 
effected Treaty of Peace with the Five Nations, 127 

Howe, Sir William, 259, 296 

Hunter, Robert, Lieutenant-Governor, 140 



I 



Indians, 4, 19, 33, 196 
Indies, West, 4, 12 
Isles of Shoals, 34 



INDEX. 451 

J 

Jackson, Thomas Jonathan (Note C), 443 

James City, 94, 11 1 ; Parish Church of, 116, 120 

James I., King, 23; extract from instructions given for the Government 
of the Colonies, by, 24, 26, 29 ; issued a new commission for the Gov- 
ernment of Virginia, 86 ; died, 87 

Jamieson, Major, 288 

James, River, 29, 104, 204, 244 

Jamestown, 29, 33, 44, 53, 57, 123 

Jay, John, 203 

Jefferson, Thomas, 39, 188; extract from, 196, 202, 207, 218; Governor, 
240; extract from autobiography, 240; Jefferson's "Summary View 
of the Rights of British America," 241 ; "Jefferson's Embargo," 253 ; 
died, 255, 278 

Jeffries, Sir Herbert, L,ieutenant-Governor, 120 

Jenings, Edmund, President of the Council, 139 

Johnson, Joseph, Governor, 365 ; elected to United States Congress seven 
times, 365 

Junius, 188 

K 



Kaskaskia Indians, 308 

Kempe, Richard, President of the Council, 96 

Kemper, James Lawson, Governor, 391 ; Brigadier-General in Confederate 

States Army, 392 ; wounded at Gettysburg, 392 ; promoted to rank of 

Major-General, 392 
Kendall, George, 28 
Kentucky, 193 

Keppel, William Anne (Lord Albemarle), Governor, 155 
Kicotan, 104 



Lane, Rai,ph, Governor, 19 

Lee, Arthur, 165 

Lee, Fitzhugh, Governor, 399 ; military life, 399, 400, 401 

Lee, Francis Lightfoot, 165 

Lee, Henry, 162; obituary on Patrick Henry, 239; Governor, 287; Gold 

Medal, 289 
Lee, Philip, 162 
Lee, Philip Ludwcll, 164, 291 



452 INDEX. 

Lee, Richard, 162 

Lee, Richard Henry 164, 177, 185, 188, 194, 195, 202, 203, 207, 218, 219, 242 

Lee, Robert Edward, 162, 293, 294 ; (Note C), 443 

Lee, Thomas LudweU, 164, 27S 

Lee, Thomas, President of the Council, 162, 163, 164, 165 

Lee, William, 165 

Leopard, Ship, 252 

Letcher, John, Governor, 369 ; copy of Resolutions of Hon. John J. Allen, 
370 ; copy of Ordinance to Repeal the Ratification of the Constitution 
of the United States, by the State of Virginia, 375 ; copy of a Declara- 
tion of the People of Virginia, represented in Convention at Wheel- 
ing (June, 1861), 376; Resolutions of Respect to the memory of 
Governor Letcher, by the General Assembly, 378 

Lewis, Andrew, 207 

Lewis, General, 196 

Lexington, battle of, 211, 287 

Lindsay, Lieutenant, 288 

Littlepage, James, 223 

Logan, Cayuga Chief, 196 

Lodge, Grand, of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Virginia, 297 

London, 23 ; Company, 23 

Long Island, 235 

Louis XVI., 256 

Louisa, County of, 223 

Louisiana, 251, 308 

LudweU, Philip, 164 

LudweU, Thomas, 97 

M 

Madison, James, 237, 282 

Manteo, baptized, 21 

Marshall, John, Chief Justice, 281, 282 

Martin, John, 28 

Maryland, 91, 136, 293 

Mason, George, 202, 226, 237, 278, 282 

Mason, Thomson, 203 

Massachusetts, 185, 186, 194, 201, 211, 250 

Matthews, Captain Samuel, President of the Council, 106; contest with 
the Assembly, 106, 107, 108, 109, no, in 

McClurg, James, 282 

McDonaugh, 83 

McDowell, James, Governor, 358 ; Representative in United States Con- 
gress, 359 

McKinney, Philip W., Governor, 403 ; settlement of public debt, 405 



INDEX. 453 

Meade, Bishop William, 41, 96, 116, 121, 128, 157 ; extract from, 283 

Meredith, Captain Samuel, 224 

Mexico, monuments of, 3 

Missouri, admitted as State into the Union, 332 

Montgomery, County of, 193 

Montcalm, General, 175 

Monticello, 241, 245, 249, 253 

Monroe, James, Governor, 300 ; Aide-de-Camp to Lord Stirling, 300 ; 
studied law under Thomas Jefferson, 300; married, 301 ; "Gabriel's 
Insurrection," 302 ; account of Daniel Morgan, 303 ; elected President 
of the United States, 304 ; died, 305 ; 315 ; report of Committee on 
Foreign Relations, 315 ; Monroe County, 317 

Morgan, Daniel, 303 

Morocco, Emperor of, 251 

Moultrie, William, Colonel, 233 

Mount Vernon, 187, 250, 291 

Moryson, Francis, Lieutenant-Governor, 115; Act passed for building a 
church in each parish, during term of, 115 

Murray, John (Earl of Dunmore), Governor, 193 

N 

Napoi^EON, Emperor, 252 

Narragansett Bay, 194 

Nelson, 188 

Nelson, William, President of the Council, 190, 257 

Nelson, Thomas, Jr., Governor, 256 

Newcome, Dr., 257 

New England, 35, 132, 195 ; people of, 208, 307 

Newfoundland, 5, 7 

New Jersey, 287, 293, 307 

Newport, Christopher, sailed from the Thames, 28, 32 

New York, 133, 185 ; city of, 200, 251 ; 287, 307 

Nicholson, Sir Francis, 130; Lieutenant-Governor, 136; moved seat of 

Government to Williamsburg, 136 
Nicholas, Wilson Cary, Governor, 326 - 
Nicholas, Robert Carter, 188, 207, 280, 326 
Norfolk, 198, 225 

North, Lord, conciliatory proposition of, 242 
Nott, Edward, Lieutenant-Governor, 137 

o 

Ohio River, 196 



454 INDEX. 



Page, John, Governor, 306 ; County of Page, 309 

Paine, Thomas, 235 

Palestine, conquest of, 2 

Parson's Cause, 221 

Patton, John Mercer, Governor, 352; assisted in a Revision of the Code 
of Virginia, 353 

Paulus's Hook, 289, 293 

Pemisapan, slain, 19 

Pendleton, Edmund, 207 ; President of Conventions, 209 ; described by 
William Wirt, 210, 278 

Pennsylvania, 186, 188, 287 

Penobscot River, 23 

Percy, George, 30; Captain, President of the Council, 44; Deputy-Gov- 
ernor, 50 

Perry, Henry, 107 

Pettus, Thomas, 107 

Philadelphia, 200, 203, 208, 237, 258, 280, 288 

Pitt, William (Lord Chatham), 182 ; extract from speech, 183, 184 ; 204 

Pierpoint, Francis H., Governor, 381 ; moved seat of government to Alex- 
andria, Virginia, 382 ; removed seat of government to Richmond, 
Virginia, 382 

Pittsylvania, County of, 224 

Pleasants, James, Jr., Governor, 334; long periods for which he held 
public offices, 334 

Plymouth, 21 ; Plymouth Company, 23, 34 

Pocahontas, 42, 43, 54, 57 

Point Pleasant, 196, 248 

Porteus, Dr., 257 

Port Royal, 56 

Portsmouth, 244 

Potomac, 48 ; River, 204 

Pott, Doctor John, 90 

Powell, Captain Nathaniel, President of the Council, 59 

Powhatan, 30, 57 ; River, 29 

Powle Brooke, 59 

Preble, Commodore, 251 

Preston, James P., Governor, 328; wounded at Chrystler's Field, 328; 
County of Preston named, 329 

Prince William County, 287 

Purdie's Paper, extract from, 225, 226 



Q 



QUEJBEC, 175 



INDEX. 455 

R 

Ralegh, Sir Walter, 6, 7 ; patent from Elizabeth to, 8, 13, 14 ; chiet 
Governor of Virginia, 15; executed, 17; Bancroft's tribute to, 17, 19; 
introduced the use of tobacco in England, 20, 21, 25 

Randolph, Beverley, Governor, 284 

Randolph, Edmund, 237 ; Governor, 279, 282 

Randolph, Peyton, 188, 195 ; President of Conventions, 199 

Randolph, Peyton, Acting Governor, 320; author of "Report of Cases 
argued and determined in Court of Appeals of Virginia," 320 

Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, 327 

Randolph, Thomas Mann, Governor, 330; decision of Supreme Court 
concerning Dartmotith College, 331 ; extract from Daniel Webster's 
speech (1820), 331 ; extract from inaugural address of President James 
Monroe, 332 

Ratcliffc, John, 28, 29; President of the Council, 30, 32 

Reade, George, 107 

Resolutions approving the polic}- of the President of the United States in 
reference to the Reconstruction of the Union, 383 

Resolutions for a cession of the lands on the north-west side of Ohio to the 
United States by Virginia, 246, 247, 248 

Resolutions requesting the President of the United States to grant a gen- 
eral Amnesty to the citizens of Virginia, 382 

Rhode Island, 194, 195 
•Richmond, 197, 200, 205, 207, 210, 211, 237, 245, 281 

Richmond Randolph Lodge, 282 

Roanoke, Island of, 13, 19, 21, 28 

Robertson, Wyndham, Governor, 344 ; author of Anti-Coercion Resolu- 
tion, 345 

Robins, Obedience, 107 

RoV)inson, John, President of the Council, 160 

Rochelle, 35 

Rolfe, John, 43, 54 

Rolfe, Thomas, 43 

"Rose well," 306 

Rutherfoord, John, Governor, 354 ; first captain of Richmond Fayette 
Artillery, 355 



Scotland, 190 

Seals of Virginia, 234, 235 

Seminary, Theological, of Virginia, 116 

Shenandoah, County of, 193 



456 INDEX. 

Smith, Courtland H., 401 

Smith, Francis Lee, 162 

Smithfield, 328 

Smith, John Augustine, 344 

Smith, John, Captain, 28 ; President of the Council, 31 ; entered the serv- 
ice of Hungary, 31 ; sold as a slave, 32 ; returned to England, 32 ; 
sailed for Virginia, 32 ; rescued by Pocahontas, 33 ; saved the Colony 
three times from abandonment, 33 ; returned to England, 34 ; died, 
36 ; buried in St. Sepulcher's Church, 44 ; tributes to, 36, 37, 38, 39^ 
40, 41, 42 

Smith, John, of Gloucester County, Virginia, bequeaths the estates of Old 
and New Purton, to Mary Willis, 167 

Smith, John, of Middlesex County, Virginia, 258 

Smith, Captain Larkin, 296 

Smith, Major John, Speaker, 106, 107, 108, 109, no 

Smith, Captain Matthew, 258 

Smith, Thomas, assign of Ralegh, 13; President of London Company, 23; 
Sir, 51 

Smith, George William, Governor, 318; burned in Theatre, Richmond, 
Virginia, 319 

Smith, William, Governor, 360; Retrocession of Alexandria County to the 
Commonwealth of Virginia during this term, 361 ; Colonel of 49th 
Regiment of Virginia Infantry, 361 ; Wounded at Sharpsburg, Mary- 
land, 362 ; Promoted to rank of Major-General, 362 ; Governor, 379 

Slavery, first introduced into Virginia, 85, 151; Fairfax resolves against, 
202 ; Manumission of slaves, 241 ; Ordinance of General Slave Eman- 
cipation in Virginia, 382 

Somers, Sir George, 23, 46 

Southampton Insurrection, 340 

South Carolina, 136; Regiment of, 233 

Spain, having sent Columbus, 4, 84, 308 

Spencer, Nicholas, President of the Council, 126 

Springfield, battle of, 287 

Spotswood, Alexander, Lieutenant-Governor, 137, 141, 142; Expedition 
across the " Great Mountains," 143; " Knights of the Golden Horse- 
shoe," 144; Journal of Mr. Fontaine, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148; "The 
Ohio Company," 149; Rebuilt William and Mary College, 148, 154 
159; Spotswood Mt. , 143 

St. Croix, 56 

Stony Point, 289 

Stratford, 163 



Tarleton, 245 

Tavern, Old Ralegh, 194, 195, 201 



INDEX. 4r)7 

Tavern, Spread Eagle, 288 

Taylor, Bennett, 283 

Tazewell, Littleton Waller, Governor, 342; author of "Review of the 

Negotiations between the United States and Great Britain," etc., 343 
Temple Farm, 150 
Tel El-Amarna, recent discoveries, 2 
Texas, annexed to the United States, 337 
Three Turks' Heads, 34 
Ticonderoga, 175 
Tippecanoe, 271 
Tripoli, 251 
Turner, Nat, 341 
Tyler, John, Governor, 313 ; married, 313 ; Judge of Court of Appeals, 313 ; 

Judge of the District Court of the United States for Virginia, 314 ; 

County of Tyler, 314 
Tyler, John, Governor, 336 ; Vice-President, 337 ; President of the United 

States, 337 ; presided over the Peace Conference of February, 1861 , 337 



u 



University of Virginia, 254 



Venice, Republic of, 5 ; (Note B), 442 

Vermont, 184 

Virginia, daughter of Lord Dunmore, 197 

Virginia Historical Society, 140 

Virginia, named by Elizabeth, 13, 18, 19, 21 ; first English child born in 
the country, baptized, 21 ; 25, 32, 98, 100, 112, 190, 195 ; Constitution 
of, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231 ; seals of, 233, 234, 243 ; cession of 
lands northwest of Ohio to the United States, by, 246, 247, 248; 257 ; 
" Virginia plan," 280, 293, 316, 413; principal rivers and branches, 
414; Tide-water Virginia, 416; the Middle Country, 417 ; Piedmont 
Virginia, 417 ; the Great Valley of Virginia, 159, 418 ; the Blue Ridge 
Section, 420; Appalachian Virginia, 420; mineral resources, 421; 
Iron, 423 ; Coal, 424 ; Zinc, 425 ; Lead, 426 ; Manganese, 426 ; Tin, 
426 ; Copper, 427 ; Salt, 427 ; Asbestos, 428 ; Soapstone, 428 ; Black 
Lead, 429 ; Mica, 429 ; Gold, 429 ; Pyrites, 430 ; Barytes, 430 ; Lime- 
stone, 430; Plaster, 431 ; Marl, 432; Building Stone and Slate, 433 ; 
Kaolin, 434 ; Fire-Clays, 434 ; Mineral Springs, 434 ; Climate, 435 ; 
Forests, 436; Flowers, 437; Cereals, Cotton, Tobacco, 438; Fisheries, 
439 



458 INDEX. 

W 



Wai,ker, John, 107 

Walker, Gilbert C, Provisional Governor, 387; Governor, 387; Repre- 
sentative in United States Congress, 388; (Note D), causes which 
rendered necessary a new edition of the Code of Virginia during this 
term, 444 

Warrosquoyeake, 100 

Washington, George, 16S, 169, 187, 188, 201, 202, 203, 204, 208, 211, 219, 
235. 237, 238, 250, 279, 280, 281, 282, 295, 298, 299 

Washington, County of, 193 

Washington, Fort, 235 

Wayne, Fort, 308 

Weedon, General, 288 

Wells, Henry H., Provisional Governor, 385 

West, Captain Francis, President of the Council, 89 

West, Captain John, President of the Council, 92 

West Virginia, admitted as a state into the Union, 382 

Weyanoak, 104 

Weymouth, Captain George, sailed from England, 23 

Wheeler, John H., 40 

Whiskey Insurrection, 292, 307 

White, John, Governor, 21 

Whitehall, 98, iii 

Whittaker, Rev. Alexander, 51 

Whitehead, Thomas (Commissioner of Agriculture for Virginia), extracts 
from, 413 

Williamsburg Gazette, extract from, 232 

Williamsburg, 136, 137, 156, 187, 189, 194, 195, 200, 202, 224, 225, 226, 235 

Willis, Francis, 107 

Willis, Mary, 167 

Wingfield, Edward Maria, 23 ; President of the Coiincil, 28, 30, 32 

Winchester, Town of, established, 298 

Wirt, William, 42, 210; extracts from, 221, 222, 237, 273 

Wise, Henry Alexander, Governor, 367 ; Harper's Ferry movement, 368 ; 
Brigadier-General in the Confederate States Army, 368 ; County 
named after, 368 

Wocoken, Island of, 12, 13 

Wolfe, General, 175 

Wood, James, Governor, 298; County of, 299 

Woodford, Colonel William, 225 

Wren, Sir Christopher, 137 

Wyatt, Sir Francis, Governor, 86, 94 

Wythe, George, 237, 278, 282 



INDEX. 459 

Y 

Yates, Rev. Mr., 257, 260, 261 

Ycardlcy, Captain George, Ivicutenant-Governor, 55, 57; Governor, 60, SS 

York, 190, 192 ; River, 204, 224, 306 

Yorktown, 190, 211, 256 



Zank, Isaac, 207 



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o5 V 



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